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A wide variety of different monetary standards were used by different ancient Greek city-states for their silver coinage. These standards differed in the weight of the main monetary unit and also in the denominational structure of the coinage. Modern numismatists have assigned names to these standards, based on the most prominent city-state ...
The three most important standards of the ancient Greek monetary system were the Attic standard, based on the Athenian drachma of 4.3 grams (2.8 pennyweights) of silver, the Corinthian standard based on the stater of 8.6 g (5.5 dwt) of silver, that was subdivided into three silver drachmas of 2.9 g (1.9 dwt), and the Aeginetan stater or didrachm of 12.2 g (7.8 dwt), based on a drachma of 6.1 g ...
Athenian coinage (and its weight standard) became one of the most important standards in the Aegean region in the Classical period, for a number of reasons. [citation needed] Firstly, the Athenian silver mines at Laurion were the main source of silver in the Aegean. Secondly, the Athenian demand for grain was met by sending large quantities of ...
The tetradrachm's use as a currency was soon adopted by many other city-states of the ancient Greece, Asia Minor, Magna Grecia and other Greek colonial cities throughout the Mediterranean Sea. With the armies of Alexander the Great it spread to other Greek-influenced areas of Asia. Tetradrachms were common as trade coins. [7]
In ancient Greece, the drachma (Greek: δραχμή, romanized: drachmḗ, [drakʰmέː]; pl. drachmae or drachmas) was an ancient currency unit issued by many city-states during a period of ten centuries, from the Archaic period throughout the Classical period, the Hellenistic period up to the Roman period.
The Athenian coinage decree also known as the Standards decree was a decree made by the Athenians to standardise currency amongst the states with whom they were allied. Between the years of 450 and 447 BC, the use of Athenian silver currency and Athenian weights and measures was made obligatory in all allied states of the Athenian Empire. [1]
As the Athenian league's influence expanded over the Mediterranean, the Attic standard became one of the major weight standards adopted during the Archaic and Hellenistic Period. [6] During the Peloponnesian War, a trireme crew of 200 rowers was paid a talent for a month's worth of work, one drachma, or 4.3 grams of silver per rower per day. [7]
Greek masses similarly bear a nominal resemblance to Greek currency yet the origin of the Greek standards of weights is often disputed. [11] There were two dominant standards of weight in the eastern Mediterranean: a standard that originated in Euboea and that was subsequently introduced to Attica by Solon , and also a standard that originated ...