The earliest known electrum coins, Lydian and East Greek coins found under the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, are currently dated to between 625 and 600 BC). : 237 Various multiples of this denomination were also struck, including the trihemitetartemorion (literally three half-tetartemorioi) valued at 3 ⁄ 8 of an obol. This coin (which was known to have been struck in Athens, Colophon, and several other cities) is mentioned by Aristotle as the smallest silver coin. ![]() The obol was further subdivided into tetartemorioi (singular tetartemorion ) which represented 1 ⁄ 4 obol, or 1 ⁄ 24 drachm. In addition to its original meaning (which also gave the diminutive " obelisk ", "little spit"), the word obol (ὀβολός, obolós, or ὀβελός, obelós ) was retained as a Greek word for coins of small value, still used as such in Modern Greek slang (όβολα, óvola, "monies"). Because of this very aspect, Spartan legislation famously forbade issuance of Spartan coin, and enforced the use of iron ingots, called pelanoi in order to discourage avarice and the hoarding of wealth. In archaic, pre-numismatic times iron was valued for making durable tools and weapons, and its casting in spit form may have actually represented a form of transportable bullion, which eventually became bulky and inconvenient after the adoption of precious metals. This suggests that before coinage came to be used in Greece, spits in prehistoric times were used as measures in daily transactions. Drachmae were divided into six obols (from the Greek word for a spit ), and six spits made a "handful". The word drachm (a) means "a handful", literally "a grasp". The three most important standards of the ancient Greek monetary system were the Attic standard, based on the Athenian drachma of 4.3 grams (2.8 pennyweights ) of silver, the Corinthian standard based on the stater of 8.6 g (5.5 dwt) of silver, that was subdivided into three silver drachmas of 2.9 g (1.9 dwt), and the Aeginetan stater or didrachm of 12.2 g (7.8 dwt), based on a drachma of 6.1 g (3.9 dwt). The coins produced during this period are called Roman provincial coins or Greek Imperial Coins. ![]() ![]() The Greek cities continued to produce their own coins for several more centuries under Roman rule. The Classical period then began, and lasted until the conquests of Alexander the Great in about 330 BC, which began the Hellenistic period, extending until the Roman absorption of the Greek world in the 1st century BC. The Archaic period extends from the introduction of coinage to the Greek world during the 7th century BC until the Persian Wars in about 480 BC. The history of ancient Greek coinage can be divided (along with most other Greek art forms) into four periods: the Archaic, the Classical, the Hellenistic and the Roman.
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