DRACHMA
DRACHMA (
δραχμή), the name of a
weight and of a denomination of coin among the Greeks. As weight and as coin
it was the hundredth part of the mina, and was divided into six lesser units
called
ὀβολοί. [See
PONDERA
ad init.] The ancients (
Etym.
Mag. s. v.
ὀβελίσκος: Pollux,
9.77) connected the word with
δράσσομαι,
“I grasp,” and
δράγμα,
“a handful,” and supposed that a drachm was originally the
value in silver of a handful of six
ὀβολοι,
or wedge-shaped pieces of metal, which circulated as money. It is, however,
very doubtful if this derivation is not a mere fancy: it is far more
probable that
δραχμή, like
δαρεικός, is connected with the Persian word
darag,
“a part,” since the weight of the drachm seems to be derived by
division of the mina, rather than the weight of the mina to be produced by
multiplication of the drachm.
The ordinary denominations of Greek coins were: for gold, the didrachm
(double drachm), drachm, hemi-drachm, and smaller divisions ; for silver,
the same, with the addition of the tetradrachm, and occasionally of the
decadrachm. The weight of the drachm varied according to the standard to
which it belonged [see tables under PONDERA; the
heaviest drachm was the Aeginetan of 96 grains, worth in silver rather more
than a shilling of our money: it was
![](http://images.perseus.tufts.edu/images/thumbs/1999.04.1/1999.04.0063.fig10694_1) |
Aeginetan Drachm. (British Museum. Actual size.)
|
called at Athens
παχεῖα δραχμή
(Pollux, 9.76). The Athenian drachm weighed but 67.5
![](http://images.perseus.tufts.edu/images/thumbs/1999.04.1/1999.04.0063.fig10694_2) |
Attic Drachm: late. (British Museum. Actual size.)
|
grains, and the Corinthian only 45 grains, value about sixpence.
The sign for drachm in Attic inscriptions is [drachm1]. As the Romans
reckoned in sesterces, so the Greeks generally reckoned by drachmae; and
when a sum is mentioned in the Attic writers, without any specification of
the unit, drachmae are usually meant.
[
P.G]