DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49262#0061
ch. ii] THE COIN AS A MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE 41
That ‘ didrachm ’ is what was afterwards called a tetradrachm ;
but Aristotle or his redactor1 clearly tells us that the ‘ old struck
coin ’ was a didrachm. The drachm was lowered to half its
weight, in all probability by the tyrant Hippias 2.
The standard of Corinth, the earliest coins of which city
belong probably to the time of Periander (b. c. 625-585) has
the same unit as the Euboic, but differs in its divisional system.
The stater (Pl. II. 5) at first weighed 8 40 g., later as much
as 8-66 g. ; but it was divided into three drachms (Pl. II. 6).
These drachms weigh 2 91 g., a weight which implies a full
stater of 8-73 g., i. e. nearly exactly the normal weight of the
Attic didrachm. Thus two Corinthian drachms (5 82 g.) would
be fairly equivalent to one Aeginetic drachm of about b gog.,
at least for purposes of ordinary trade. The Corinthian
standard was thus practically connected with both the Euboic-
Attic and the Aeginetic standards. The Corinthian standard
was the origin of the peculiar ‘ Italic’ and ‘Tarentine’ standards.
§ 7. The Western Mediterranean.
We may now pass to the Western Mediterranean. In such
parts as were colonized by the Greeks wre find various Greek
standards — Aeginetic (possibly), Phoenician, Euboic-Attic.
But before the introduction of coinage there existed in these
parts a medium of exchange in uncoined bronze, and the
earliest standard of Italy at least is therefore a bronze standard.
It can nevertheless be fitted into the Babylonian system. The
old Italic pound of 273 g. is half the light Babylonian silver
mina of the common norm (545 to 547 g.). The Roman
pound of 327 to 328 g. is one-third of the heavy weight mina,
or three-tenths of the heavy Babylonian silver mina, of the
same norm. It is on this pound weight of bronze of 327-45 g.
(libra, λίτρα) that the Roman currency is based, the bronze
as libralis being the coin of the weight of the Roman pound.
The silver equivalent of the pound weight of bronze was in
1 Αθηναίων Πολιτεία, cap. 10 : ην δ’ ΰ αρχαίος χαρακτηρ δίδραχμον.
2 See below, ch. iii. § 2. For the theory of Solon’s reform of the
standard stated in the text, I have given reasons in Num. Chron. 1897, pp.
284 ft. The arguments of G. Gilbert 'New Jahrbwher f. Philologie, 1896,
p. 537), which I had not seen at the time, do not seem to me to establish
the theory that the type of the Solonian coinage was an ox.
That ‘ didrachm ’ is what was afterwards called a tetradrachm ;
but Aristotle or his redactor1 clearly tells us that the ‘ old struck
coin ’ was a didrachm. The drachm was lowered to half its
weight, in all probability by the tyrant Hippias 2.
The standard of Corinth, the earliest coins of which city
belong probably to the time of Periander (b. c. 625-585) has
the same unit as the Euboic, but differs in its divisional system.
The stater (Pl. II. 5) at first weighed 8 40 g., later as much
as 8-66 g. ; but it was divided into three drachms (Pl. II. 6).
These drachms weigh 2 91 g., a weight which implies a full
stater of 8-73 g., i. e. nearly exactly the normal weight of the
Attic didrachm. Thus two Corinthian drachms (5 82 g.) would
be fairly equivalent to one Aeginetic drachm of about b gog.,
at least for purposes of ordinary trade. The Corinthian
standard was thus practically connected with both the Euboic-
Attic and the Aeginetic standards. The Corinthian standard
was the origin of the peculiar ‘ Italic’ and ‘Tarentine’ standards.
§ 7. The Western Mediterranean.
We may now pass to the Western Mediterranean. In such
parts as were colonized by the Greeks wre find various Greek
standards — Aeginetic (possibly), Phoenician, Euboic-Attic.
But before the introduction of coinage there existed in these
parts a medium of exchange in uncoined bronze, and the
earliest standard of Italy at least is therefore a bronze standard.
It can nevertheless be fitted into the Babylonian system. The
old Italic pound of 273 g. is half the light Babylonian silver
mina of the common norm (545 to 547 g.). The Roman
pound of 327 to 328 g. is one-third of the heavy weight mina,
or three-tenths of the heavy Babylonian silver mina, of the
same norm. It is on this pound weight of bronze of 327-45 g.
(libra, λίτρα) that the Roman currency is based, the bronze
as libralis being the coin of the weight of the Roman pound.
The silver equivalent of the pound weight of bronze was in
1 Αθηναίων Πολιτεία, cap. 10 : ην δ’ ΰ αρχαίος χαρακτηρ δίδραχμον.
2 See below, ch. iii. § 2. For the theory of Solon’s reform of the
standard stated in the text, I have given reasons in Num. Chron. 1897, pp.
284 ft. The arguments of G. Gilbert 'New Jahrbwher f. Philologie, 1896,
p. 537), which I had not seen at the time, do not seem to me to establish
the theory that the type of the Solonian coinage was an ox.