Ancient Hellas was to the Near Eastern Civilizations based in what is modern Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt, what Japan was to China, what England was to Europe, essentially a rugged outland of pirates and petty kingdoms. Babylonian currency would be as common in Hellas as would local coinage. Most importantly, the large units of wealth, what we would regard as bankers billions today, where not measurable in Hellenic, but only Babylonian terms, in the form of the talent.
Babylonian
Shekel: ¼ ounce of silver or gold
Mina: 60 shekels, or 15-16 ounces of silver or gold
Talent: 3600 shekels, 60 mina, or 60 pounds of silver or gold
The commoner would measure his wealth in shekels, the businessman or local official by mina; and kings by the talent.
Hellenic
Note: Modern equivalents are for the mid-Atlantic region of the United States of
America in the year 2005.
Drakhmae: basic unit of exchange; a day’s pay for a skilled laborer
About $80-$120; the cost of a pair of quality boots or professional-quality
boxing gloves
Obol: 1 6th of a drakhmae; jurors were paid by the obol for their services
About the cost of a case of premium beer, or a cheap pair of training gloves
Tetradrakhmae: 4 drakhmae; issued by Athens and later Makedonia at the height of their
military power, perhaps as a convenient denomination for troop payment
Mina: 100 drakhmae; approximate cost of a horse, or hoplite panoply
About $8-$12,000; the cost of a good used car or a quality boxing ring
Talent: 60 mina or 6,000 drakhmae; approximate cost of building a single war-galley
About $600,000; enough to purchase a suburban mansion
Coins were minted on the Thrakian standard for Balkan transactions or on the Attik (Athenian) standard for larger scale Mediterranean commerce. These coins would often be minted by a ruler and named after him.
The above are values for the classical and Hellenistic period. One should never forget the effects of inflation: by 77 A.D. the price of a horse had risen to 2700 drakhmae and by 206 A.D. dancing girls were commanding 12+ drachmae a day. Likewise, for the Archaic period the values of the coinage was greater [double] and greater still where coinage was rare.
