Expert: Irulan Serena - 1/4/2008

Question
Was there money in and around troy when troy fell so around 1250BC? if so what was it called and what kind of value did it have compared two todays money.

Answer

Troy was a Greek city-states who also used the same monetary system as the rest of the city states of Greece., that was the use of the drachma, the mina and the talent.

The name drachma is derived from the verb "äñÜôôù" (dratto, "to grasp").  Initially a drachma was a fistful (a "grasp") of six oboloi metal sticks, which were used as a form of currency as early as 1100 BC. It was the standard unit of silver coinage at most ancient Greek mints, and the name 'obol' was used to describe a coin that was one-sixth of a drachma.

Before 600 B.C. there was no monetary system in Greece, so they utilized the barter system. This was a system of trading goods and /or services for other goods and/or services.

By 500 B.C., each city-state began minting their own coin which was made from different metals such as gold, silver, iron, bronze or copper.  A merchant usually only took coins from their own city. Visitors had to find a moneychanger to exchange their coins. Typically a 5 or 6 percent fee was charged to exchange foreign currency to the local currency.

It is generally considered very hard or even meaningless to come up with comparative exchange rates with modern currency due to the fact that the range of products produced economies of centuries gone by were very different from today, however a very brief summary of the monetary usage would be as follows:

The obolus (or obol) is a Greek silver coin worth a sixth of a drachma.

6 obols = 1 drachma
100 drachma = 1 mina
600 minae = 1 talent (or the equivalent of 57 pounds of silver)

A worker could earn about two drachmas a day. Sculptors and doctors were able to make up to six drachmas daily. An unskilled worker would make around half of a drachma for one day’s work.

The typical costs of goods in ancient Greek city-states.
loaf of bread = 1 obol
1lamb = 8 drachmas
gallon of olive oil = 5 drachmas
sandals =  8 to 12 drachmas
slaves = 200 to 300 drachmas