Antiquity, a piece of gold, first coined by Darius the Mede about 538 years before Christ, probably during his stay at Babylon, out of the vast quantity of gold which had been accumulated in the treasury of that capital. The daric was thence dispersed over the East, and also in Greece; so that the Persian daric, which was also called stater, was the gold coin best known in Athens in Darien ancient times. According to Dr Bernard, it weighed two grains more than one of our guineas; but as it was very fine, and contained little alloy, it may be reckoned as worth about twenty-five shillings of our money. Plutarch informs us that the darica were stamped on one side with an archer clothed in a long robe, and crowned with a spiked crown, holding a bow in his left hand and an arrow in his right; and that on the other side they bore the effigies of Darius. All the other pieces of gold of the same weight and value which were coined by the succeeding kings, both of the Persian and Macedonian race, were also called darics. Of these there were whole darics and half darics; and in those parts of Scripture written after the Babylonian captivity they are called adarkonim, and by the Talmudists darkonoth. Greaves says that the daric is still found in Persia, but it is certainly very scarce, and perhaps of doubtful antiquity.