Ancient Greek Coins/Ancient Greek Currancy

From the start of 600 BC, every Greek city, started to mint all of its own types of coins. Now most of the ancient Greek coins were made of silver. A small little lump of silver was taken, this is put on a mould which was made of iron and then it was struck with a hammer repeatedly. The hammer had a different mould on it too. Since there was a mould on the hammer and the iron mould, you could see two different pictures getting molded on two different sides at the same time.

Now, the pictures which were present on the different coins were actually different and they would differ according to the state in which one lived. If you were an Athenian then the coin would probably have a picture of the owl of Athena. The coin would also have the words ATHE in Greek letters.

If you were from Corinth, then you would have a coin which had the picture of Pegasus, which was a flying horse. Now the small coins used to be called obolos. if someone had the job of unloading the boats or of digging ditches then, they would probably get around 2 obolos a day. There were coins which had more value than the rest too. Just like the mechanism we follow with the coins these days.

Now, the different divisions of the ancient Greek coins were as talents, minas, obolos and drachmas. One talent would cost you 60 minas, one mina would take you 100 drachmas, 1 stated would get you 2 drachmas and finally one drachma would earn you 6 obolus.

Around the mid 5th Century, BC, a salaried military class, a salaried government class workers and the parliamentary pay was also introduced. The mayor would get around 1 drachma, the judge would get 3 obolus and finally if you were a member of the parliament, then you would land up getting around 1 drachma too.

So according to your position the ancient Greek coins would be distributed among the people of ancient Greece and according to the city the coin would be made.

Information on:
Ancient Greece Coins, coinage, money in Silver and Gold
Coins during ancient Greek period Histoy

Ancient Greek Life History / Ancient Greece Facts for Kids

We owe a lot to Ancient Greek Civilization. History of ancient Greece is a fascinating. On this site, we have given information on various ancient Greek life aspects - Arts, Boys and Girls, Architecture, Dancing, Gods, Myths, Medicine, Inventions, Houses, Government, Religions, Wars, Politics, Weapons and ancient Greece Cities.