Tetradrachm

The tetradrachm or the tetradrachm ( Greek  τετράδραχμον , also tetrachm ) is a coin of four drachms , a four- drachm piece. Tetradrachms were made from the end of the 6th century BC. Minted until the Roman Empire ; they were sporadically in use up to the 3rd century AD.

The tetradrachm is considered to be the most important large silver coin of the states of ancient Greece . In Athens it was discovered around 530/520 BC. Introduced there and formed the normal piece of the coin footer , i.e. the stater . Coining oriented towards the Attic coinage took over this function. They were shaped from Bactria to Sicily . The mass of the tetradrachms was typically between 14 and 17 g. For a tetradrachm a craftsman of the 5th to 4th century BC had to Work about four days - provided that you are involved in the money economy .

The coinage rate fluctuated over time. For example, the Alexandrines , Imperial Roman coins for the Egyptian part of the empire , had silver contents well below 500/1000 ( billon ) .

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  Tetradrachm from Aitne in Sicily

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  Attic tetradrachm, around 410 BC Chr. (17.21 g)

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  Tetradrachm from Syracuse , 218 BC Chr.

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  Tetradrachm from Catana , ~ 405/402 BC Chr. (16.99 g)

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  Syrian tetradrachm, Antiochus I , 280-261 BC. Chr. (16.93 g)

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  Alexandrian tetradrachm, Nero and Poppaea Sabina , 54–68 AD (12.49 g)

Web links

Commons : Tetradrachm  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Tyll Kroha (1977). Article “Tetradrachmen”, Lexicon of Numismatics, Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, p. 435f
2. ^ Heinrich Chantraine : Tetradrachm. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Col. 632.
3. ^ Tyll Kroha (1977). Article “Tetradrachmen”, Lexicon of Numismatics, Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, p. 435f
4. ^ Tyll Kroha (1977). Article "Alexandriner", Lexikon der Numismatik, Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, p. 24