Athens - Ancient Greek Currency
By Fanis Piperis
From the Homeric epics we know that transactions then were always calculated using animals, ever valuable in primitive societies. Later, metals began to circulate in the Mediterranean, the weight of which determined their value. Talents were huge pieces of metal weighing about 29 kg, in the shape of a stretched sheepskin. Around the 7th century, the rich mines of Asia Minor made it feasible for colonial states to transact business using small rounded pieces of electro, i.e. a mixture of gold and silver. The oldest examples of these coins were found on the eastern Aegean island of Samos.
In mainland Hellas in the 7th century, transactions were conducted with metallic rods known as obeloi. One could hold six obeloi in the palm of one's hand, and this was called a drax (handful). The word drachma, the Greek currency up to the present day, is derived from this word. In the 6th century, when gold Persian coins called darks flooded Hellas, the island of Aegina was the first to mint its own coins, which were stamped with a turtle. Athens followed, cutting drachmas out of pieces of pure silver, which on one side showed the head of the goddess Athena and on the other her sacred bird, the owl, together with an olive branch. The drachma equalled six obeloi, retaining the old ratio of 1 drax to 6 obeloi. The best known Athenian coin was the silver tetradrachm (4 drachmas). Its metal was so pure as to permit the people to hold it in their mouths, since pockets were unknown, at least so Aristophanes tells us. Perhaps this is the origin of the custom of placing a coin in the mouth of dead persons to pay Charon the ferryman who carried them into Hades.
Ever conservative, the Spartans continued to utilise the obelos, even after the use of coins became widespread, in order to avoid expensive innovations, as Plutarch said in his biography of Lykourgos. But Athens imposed its drachma, which became established in trade as an indication of prosperity. Despite this, many other cities declared their independence by minting their own local currency. Money had entered people's lives through buying and selling, loans and fraud, all to make profit. Any capable man could have a bench, or trapeza in the Agora, and could serve or speculate as he chose. Under the incomes policy introduced by Solon in the 6th century, competition was what spurred production and exports, making the Agora the pulsating heart of Athens in both the political and commercial sphere.
Take a look at Greece Travel Guide and Athens Guide to learn more about ancient Greece and Ancient Greek Coins.
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