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How much was a tetradrachm worth in Ancient Greece?

Does anyone know approximately how much a tetradrachm like this was worth in Ancient Greece?

Like was it considered a sizeable amount of money or was it something that people spent every day on little things like wheat & wine?


Comments

  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,357 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We have already answered this for you, more or less. ;)

    https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1057842/what-could-a-silver-tetradrachm-buy-in-ancient-greece

    It wasn't an "everyday shopping" coin. It was a store of wealth, and would have been used for large transactions, or luxury purchases. It would have been too much money to take to the butcher, or the miller. It would buy enough of the finest wine in the world (considered at the time to be that from the island of Chios) to fill eight modern wine bottles.

    In bulk the coin would have been used for government transactions (building and maintaining ships, paying and receiving tribute, paying the soldiers and sailors, etc).

    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice. B)
  • MKUltra24MKUltra24 Posts: 655 ✭✭✭✭

    @Sapyx said:
    We have already answered this for you, more or less. ;)

    https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1057842/what-could-a-silver-tetradrachm-buy-in-ancient-greece

    It wasn't an "everyday shopping" coin. It was a store of wealth, and would have been used for large transactions, or luxury purchases. It would have been too much money to take to the butcher, or the miller. It would buy enough of the finest wine in the world (considered at the time to be that from the island of Chios) to fill eight modern wine bottles.

    In bulk the coin would have been used for government transactions (building and maintaining ships, paying and receiving tribute, paying the soldiers and sailors, etc).

    Ah dang it! My bad.

    I have a terrible memory ever since I got a head injury in the military and ever since then I find myself sometimes asking things more than once and it’s infuriating.

    Trust me no one is angrier with my garbage memory leading to asking the same thing twice than myself.

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