Drachma is part of the Greek financial system, developed in the eight hundred year BC. The uniqueness of this coin is that it began world trade in the form in which it exists today.
Later (modern) Greek coins are no less unique than their ancestor. The last time the drachma was minted in the nineteenth century, but in compliance with ancient traditions.
Ancient standards. The cost of ancient and modern drachma
The ancient Greeks minted coins of nine hundredth gold. These, according to some historians, belonged to the ancient Greek stater. Drachma was made of silver and served to exchange stater. It is known that in the Ancient Attica one stater was equal to twenty silver drachmas.
Some sources claim that the stater was the only Greek coin minted from gold. According to other sources, the first drachmas were also gold.
Today, the numismatic value has been added to the material value of drachma as a product made of precious metal. The coin, and with it the very concept of “drachma” (until the end of 2001, paper drachmas were also used in Greece), came out of the Greek life from the first days of 2002. Today, the currency adopted in the European Union is valid in Greece.
At the time of the last abolition of drachma (nowadays), one euro was worth a little over three hundred and forty drachmas, and fifteen years later, when the numismatists remembered it, one Greek drachma - a coin minted in 1879 - was estimated at two hundred euros (14,640 rubles). .
Coins minted at the dawn of the twentieth century, today can be found in antique stores. True, their cost is still low - from fifty euro-cents to two euros (36.6 - 146 rubles).
But paper drachmas, printed in the last century, are popular. For example, for a bill of denomination of fifty drams, dated the first half of the sixties of the last century, numismatists can offer at least seven euros (512 rubles). And for twenty-five paper drams made in the early twenties of the past century, they will not regret even four hundred and fifty euros (32,941 rubles).
The basis of the Greek monetary system
Even before the first coin was minted, the ancient Greeks used the so-called weighted form of mutual settlements. The first Greek currency units - the forerunners of familiar money - some researchers call the following Greek coins: talent, mine, stater, drachma and obl.
In one obol (obol weight - 73 milligrams) there were 8 hulks. The weight drachma (its weight is 4 grams 37 milligrams) consisted of six obolas. In one stater, there were two drachmas, and in one mine (weighed 436 grams 60 milligrams) - one hundred drachmas, or fifty staters. One talent weighed twenty-six kilograms one hundred ninety-six grams and consisted of sixty mines.
The first monetary unit of the ancient Greeks according to Heraclides
According to some historians, the first mention of metal money was found in the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclides. According to the source, the ancient Greeks called their first monetary unit the obols. In fact, these were metal rods that were cut into small pieces, playing the role of a small Greek coin. Such a system of settlements was used in the seventh - fifth centuries BC.
Although the first Greek drachma was equal to six obolas, it did not exist as an independent coin. The word "drachma" meant six metal rods sandwiched in the palm of your hand.
Replaced obolas were replaced by karmatiko, and then - chelons. This name was given to Greek coins thanks to the image of a turtle (the name of the coin coincided with the name of the species of animal). Chelons were recognized as the official monetary unit, not only in the ancient Greek state, but also in the global financial community. Some modern scholars argue that the first coin minted at the first ancient Greek mint is precisely Helon.
The minters of ancient Greece did not stop at animal images. Coins of a later time, besides the symbols of cities and representatives of the animal world, depicted plants and sights, as well as the faces of Greek gods and rulers.
For example, the Athenian tetradrachm on one side was decorated with the goddess Athena, and on the other - an owl (one of the symbols of the city) with an olive branch over her head.
Gold Ancient Greek Coins
The title of the oldest coin is also claimed by the Milesian, Phocian and Kizik staters. They were minted in the period from the seventh to the fifth century before the advent of our era.
The first was produced in the city of Miletus. This ancient Greek coin (as, incidentally, the other two) belongs to the so-called electric currency units. They were used on the Ionian coast - in an area belonging to Asia Minor, but under the yoke of Lydian rulers.
Coins of the early period on one side were decorated with the image of a lion's head and the name of the king. Critical contemporaries can discern in them only recesses of an indefinite form. The weight of the Milesian stater of those times barely exceeded fourteen grams.
Fokey Stater
Fokey staters also belonged to electric coins and were minted in the city of Fokei, where they were considered a large monetary unit. Therefore, the Fokey staters were concentrated in the hands of wealthy citizens. The front side of the coin was decorated with an image of a seal (an animal that was the talisman of this ancient city).
Coins of Ancient Kyzik
From the middle of the fifth century BC, stators similar to the Phocian ones began to be minted in the mints of the city of Kizika. Here they made a small change of stater - hect (one coin was equated to a sixth of the Kyzik stater), hemi-hect (twelfth of a stater), mishegment (twenty-fourth of a Kizik stater) and smaller change money.
Kizik coins circulated in the basins of the present Marmara, Aegean and Black Seas, as well as in Thrace and Macedonia. According to historical information, the Kizik stater was used for settlements by residents of Olbia. Today, these coins have become the property of antiquity seekers participating in archaeological research in southern Ukraine.
The birth of silver drachma
Drachma, minted from silver, according to some historians, appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century, during the reign of Otgon the First. The name of the coin, the source reports, came from the Greek word "handful" (the word "drachma" is translated into Russian). The concept of “a handful” arose even in those days when drachma was exchanged for six metal rods.
The first mention of silver drachma dates back to the middle of the sixth century BC. This Greek coin was used as a currency by the inhabitants of Athens, as well as the peoples who inhabited the territory of the modern Mediterranean.
Reborn from the Ashes
According to one version, the prototype of modern Greek coins was a small bargaining chip, which was called a mite. It began to be minted in 1828. On one side, the mite was decorated with the image of the Phoenix burning itself and being reborn from its own ashes (according to legend, the Phoenix self-immolation took place once every five hundred years), near which the cross is clearly visible.
The Greeks living at the beginning of the nineteenth century identified this bird with the Christian symbols of holiness and eternal life, and their descendants with the revival of Greece, which cast off the shackles of the Turkish invaders.