Ancient COINS — 5th ed. (1815)

Ancient COINS are those chiefly which have been current among the Jews, Greeks and Romans. Their values and proportions are as follow:

JEWISH.				sterl.	l.	s.	d.
Gerah	-	-	-	-	0	0	$1\frac{1}{2}$ s
10 Becah	-	-	-	-	0	0	$1\frac{1}{2}$ s
20	2	Shekel	-	-	0	0	$2\frac{1}{2}$ s
1200	120	50	Maneh	}	5	14	$0\frac{1}{2}$
6000	600	300	Mina hebraica	}	5	14	$0\frac{1}{2}$
6000	600	60	Talent	-	342	3	9
Solidus aureus, or textula, worth				-	0	12	$0\frac{1}{2}$
Siculus aureus, worth				-	1	16	6
A talent of gold, worth				-	5475	0	0

GRECIAN.				ster.	s.	d.	grs.	Coin.
Lepton	-	-	-	-	0	0	$0\frac{1}{12}$
7 Chalcus	-	-	-	-	0	0	$0\frac{1}{12}$
14	2	Dichalcus	-	-	0	0	$1\frac{1}{2}$
28	4	2	Hemiobolum	-	0	0	$2\frac{1}{2}$
56	8	4	2	Obolus	-	0	1	$1\frac{1}{2}$
112	16	8	4	2	Diobolum	-	0	2
224	32	16	8	4	2	Tetrobolum	0	5
336	48	24	12	6	3	$1\frac{1}{2}$	Drachma	0
662	96	48	24	12	6	3	2	Didrachmon
1324	112	96	48	24	12	6	4	2
1660	384	120	60	30	15	$7\frac{1}{2}$	$5\frac{1}{2}$	$1\frac{1}{2}$
								Pentrad.

Note: Of these the drachma, didrachma, &c. were of silver, the rest for the most part of brass. The other parts, as tridrachm, tribolus, &c. were sometimes coined.

Note also: The drachma is here, with the generality of authors, supposed equal to the denarius; though there is reason to believe that the drachma was somewhat the weightier. See DRACHMA and DENARIUS.

	ster.	s.	d.
The Grecian gold coin was the stater aureus, weighing two Attic drachms, or half of the stater argenteus, and exchanging usually for 25 Attic drachms of silver in our money.	0	16	1
According to our proportion of gold to silver	1	0	9
There were likewise the stater Cyzicenus, exchanging for 28 Attic drachms, or Stater Philippicus, and stater Alexandrinus, of the same value.	0	18	1
Stater Daricus, according to Josephus, worth 50 Attic drachms, or Stater Croesus, of the same value.	1	12	3

				ster.	s.	d.	grs.	Coin.
Teruncius	-	-	-	-	0	0	$0\frac{1}{100}$
2 Semilibella	-	-	-	-	0	0	$1\frac{1}{100}$
4	2	Libella	}	-	0	0	$3\frac{1}{100}$
		As	}	-	0	0	$3\frac{1}{100}$
10	5	2	Sestertius	-	0	1	$3\frac{1}{4}$
20	10	5	2	Quinarius	-	0	3	$3\frac{1}{4}$
40	20	10	4	2	Denarius	-	0	7
								3

Note.

Note. Of these the denarius, victoriatus, sestertius, and sometimes the as, were of silver, the rest of brass. See As, &c.

There were sometimes also coined of brass the triens, sextans, uncia, sextula, and dupondius.

The Roman gold coin was the aureus, which weighed generally double the denarius; the value of which, according to the first proportion of coinage, mentioned by Pliny, was

According to the proportion that obtains now amongst us, worth

According to the decuple proportion, mentioned by Livy and Julius Pollux, worth

According to the proportion mentioned by Tacitus, and which afterwards obtained, whereby the aureus exchanged for 25 denarii, its value,