In the 5th century BC, it was a silver coin of about 17g but declined to a bronze coin of under half that weight by the last use of the term in the late 3rd century AD. With a few notable exceptions, it is the largest silver coin generally seen in ancient collections. There were a few, rare larger coins in some places but high end Greek coin collectors usually have a lot of tetradrachms.
Doug => where is that awesome link which shows all of the ancient coin denominations? (I printed-out a hard copy a few years ago, but sadly I forgot where the electronic link is located)
Well, I actually found a very cool link ... this may actually be the one? http://www.classicalcoins.com/denominations.html ... hopefully this will help you
yeah, that's the stuff. but there are bronze, potin, and billon tetradrachms also, just depends. is there a particular coin you had in mind?
I find some interest that "drachm" is still used for a weight of 1/16 ounce. That makes four of them about 7 grams which is roughly what the last Alexandrian bronze tetradrachms weigh. The term was used for a weight and later applied to a coin with a meaning I believe we would be better off taking as 'standard coin' as we also should for stater, nummus and follis. Perhaps the best translation for all is 'dose'. Details and exact weights changed with time but people expected coins to be something and had a term for that something. We do the same thing with dollar and pound if you stop and think about it. Both have been issued in gold, silver and base metal over the span of time that separates Augustus from Diocletian.
