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  • 12 - ACHAEMENID COINS, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

    • By A. D. H., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Edited by I. Gershevitch
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Iran
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 June 1985, pp 610-639

  • Summary

    The traditional established scale of bullion weights throughout the Middle East before the rise of Cyrus the Great is that known as the Babylonian standard. It also seems certain that during the later Assyrian period, shekel weights at a standard of 11.4 gm were in use in Samaria and Judaea. There is, at any rate, considerable evidence that "Bulk Silver" in various forms, constituted the main circulating medium in the Levant, Babylonia and Iran during the Achaemenid period. The standard of the Athenian tetradrachm at 17.2 gm may have been called "Euboic" by the Athenians themselves, but it represented a key unit in relation to the two Achaemenid currency systems. After the capture of the Achaemenid royal treasures by Alexander the Great, huge volumes of darics from the reserves were put into circulation, so that the market value of gold declined. The introduction by Darius of his new daric coinage took place before the enforcement of the new metrological reforms.