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. In the fourth century BC, the standard was adopted by Rhodes and became widespread in Caria, Ionia, the states of the Propontis and the Cyclades. The standard was based on an ideal stater of 15.6 g, but only half-staters (7.8 g) and sixths (2.6 g) were actually issued until the late fifth century. The Chian standard was first issued in Chios in the fifth century.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. By the Hellenistic period, the Attic standard had dropped to a tetradrachm of 16.8 g and a drachm 4.2 g. It remained dominant in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic period, when it was issued by Antigonid Macedon, the Seleucid empire, and many individual city-states. Philip II of Macedon used the standard for his gold coinage and Alexander the Great used it for silver as well from 333 BC. The use of the standard by the Euboean and Corinthian colonies meant that it also became the dominant standard used in Sicily and northwestern Greece.
In the Classical period, this standard was issued in vast quantities by the Athenian Empire and became the dominant weight standard used for payment of soldiers and for long-distance trade. Corinth also used a variant based on a stater of 8.68 g (half an Attic tetradrachm), divided into three units of 2.89 g. It was interchangeable with the Euboean standard, used by the cities of Euboea and their many colonies throughout the Mediterranean, which was based on a stater of 17.2 g divided into six hectae of 2.86 g and the two are often referred to together as the Attic-Euboean standard. Each drachma was divided into six obols of 0.72 g. It was based on a drachma of 4.3 g, but in practice the main coin was the tetradrachm of 17.2 g. The Attic standard was the standard issued by Athens from the late sixth century BC onwards.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. In the second half of the sixth century BC, the Aeginetan standard was dominant in the Greek world. This was the main trading standard in the Greek world in the Late Archaic period. 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.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. 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.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.
Others arose over time as a result of weight reductions and weight adjustments. 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. Weight standards tended to decline over time, because mints sought to profit by producing coins that were slightly lighter than their nominal weight, and because the weight of new coins was often based on the weight of coins already in circulation, which had lost weight through wear. Some standards were restricted to a few city-states others, notably the Attic-Euboean standard, became very widespread. In practice individual coins tend to vary from their ideal weights, due to a lack of precision during manufacture and the loss of weight over time through wear. All other denominations in the system would be multiples or subdivisions of that unit. 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.Įach standard was based on a single unit: usually a stater or a drachm. These standards differed in the weight of the main monetary unit and also in the denominational structure of the coinage. Rhodian tetradrachm from 230-205 BC, 12.35 g (Rhodian standard).Ī wide variety of different monetary standards were used by different ancient Greek city-states for their silver coinage.
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