List of ancient Greek monetary standards

A wide variety of different monetary standards were used by different ancient Greek city-states for their silver coinage. These standards differed in the weight of the main monetary unit and also in the denominational structure of the coinage. Modern numismatists have assigned names to these standards, based on the most prominent city-state that minted on them or the region where they are most common.

Each standard was based on a single unit: usually a

Some standards were restricted to a few city-states; others, notably the Attic-Euboean standard, became very widespread. Weight standards tended to decline over time, because mints sought to profit by producing coins that were slightly lighter than their nominal weight,[1] and because the weight of new coins was often based on the weight of coins already in circulation, which had lost weight through wear.^[2][3]

Many of these standards derived from systems of weight that existed in individual city-states when they began to use coinage in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Others arose over time as a result of weight reductions and weight adjustments. Most Greek states had ceased to mint silver coinage by the reign of Augustus, but a few standards continued in use throughout the Principate, like the cistophori.

List

• The Achaean standard consisted of a stater of around 8 g, divided into three drachms of 2.6 g and obols of 0.4 g; these weights declined over time. It was first used in the mid-sixth century by the Greek city-states of Sybaris, Metapontum, and Croton, which had been founded in Magna Graecia by Achaeans from the Peloponnese, and it remained one of the main standards in Magna Graecia until the end of coinage following the Roman conquest in the early third century BC.^[4]
• The Aeginetan standard, based on the coinage issued by Aegina had a stater of 12.4 g, which was divided into a half-stater or drachma of 6.2 g, a quarter-stater of 3.1 g, and twelve obols of 1.0 g each.^[2][1] This was the main trading standard in the Greek world in the Late Archaic period. In the second half of the sixth century BC, the Aeginetan standard was dominant in the Greek world. It was overshadowed by the Attic standard in the fifth century BC, but continued to be widely used, especially in the Peloponnese, until around 200 BC, when the Reduced Aeginetan or Symmachikon ("Allied") standard was adopted by the Achaean League.^[5]
• The
  Seleucid empire, and many individual city-states. By the Hellenistic period, the Attic standard had dropped to a tetradrachm of 16.8 g and a drachm 4.2 g.^[9] In Hellenistic Sicily and Italy, the Attic standard was retained for gold, but silver coinage was reduced repeatedly until it was replaced by the Roman denarius around 211 BC.^[10]
• The Chian standard was first issued in
  Propontis and the Cyclades.^[11] At the beginning of the Hellenistic period, it was abandoned by Chios in favour of the Attic standard and Rhodes in favour of the Rhodian standard.^[12]
• The
  Attalid dynasty of Pergamon around 190 BC and remained in use in western Asia Minor until the third century AD. The cistophorus itself was a tetradrachm of 12.6 g, divided into two didrachms of 6.3 g and four drachms of 3.15 g.^[2]
• The Milesian standard of the city of Miletus was based on a stater of 14.2 g, which could be divided into six hectae of 2.4 g or four drachmae of 3.55 g.^[1]
• The Parian-Thasian standard was used by the island of Paros in the Cyclades and its colony Thasos in the northern Aegean. It was based on a stater of around 10 g and may have originally been a reduced version of the Aeginetan standard.^[1] Under the commercial influence of Thasos, the standard was widely used in the fifth century BC by the Thracian tribal coinages.^[13]
• The Persian standard was based on the silver coins minted by the
  Hellespont, minted drachms and didrachms on this standard in the Classical period.^[1][2] In the third century BC it was used by Byzantium.^[14]
• The Phocaean standard originated in Phocaea, and was used only for electrum coinage, which was common in north-western Asia Minor in the Classical Period. It consisted of a stater of 16.1 g, divided into six hectae of 2.68 g.^[1]
• The Phocaean/Campanian standard was used by Velia (a Phocaean colony) and Poseidonia in southern Campania in the Archaic and Classical periods and spread from there to the Campanian mints. It had a stater of 7.5 g, divided into two drachmas of 3.75 g.^[15]
• The Phoenician standard, used by the city-states of Phoenicia in the fourth century BC and by the Carthaginians for some issues, had a shekel of 7.25 g. The standard was adopted by the Chalcidian League and then by Philip II of Macedon in the fourth century BC, with a tetradrachm of 14.5 g, but abandoned in favour of the Attic standard under Alexander the Great.^[16] In Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, it remained in use in the Hellenistic period in both the Ptolemaic and Seleucid spheres, but with a reduced shekel of 7.1 g (equivalent to a Ptolemaic didrachm).^[2][17][18]
• The
  Ptolemaic standard was used by the Ptolemaic Kingdom for its silver coinage from 294 BC. It was based on a tetradrachm of 14.26 g and a drachma of 3.55 g.^[19] It was equivalent to the reduced Phoenician standard used in Ptolemaic Coele-Syria and Seleucid Phoenicia.^[2][17][18]
• The Rhodian standard, a reduced version of the Chian standard, was introduced by Rhodes around 300 BC and subsequently adopted throughout the Rhodian sphere in Caria and the central Aegean. It consisted of a tetradrachm of 13.4 g, didrachm of 6.7 g, and drachm of 3.4 g.^[2][20]
• The Samian standard was used by Samos in the fifth century until replaced by the Attic standard in 412 BC. It used a tetradrachm of 13.1 g, a drachma of 3.3 g, and obols of 0.55 g.^[21]