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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 3078765, member: 76194&quot;]<b>Here is a coin as useless as the penny....</b></p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s been estimated that an ancient drachm was worth around $50 today (though keep in mind $50 gets you a lot further in a world where you don&#039;t have to pay for cell phone bill, electricity, running water, gas, car payments, internet, etc..--so the comparison can be deceiptive). In ancient times that would probably get you through a day and a half to two days in a big city, and maybe as much as 4 days if you lived in a small village.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]774874[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>A typical drachm</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>To continue, if you broke a drachm into 6 parts you&#039;d get an obol. Seems small, but hey, an obol still has value. You could probably get a decent glass of lead-sweetened wine at that questionable establishment down the block that keeps advertising they run the cleanest brothel in town. <b>I would not recommend you try to find out if that advertisement is true though</b>. <u>Keep in mind this is a world without antibiotics.</u></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]774876[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>A typical obol</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, you keep going down the list of silver coin denominations, until they get so tiny you can barely even see them (coins so small a US dime looks huge next to them). But that&#039;s not worthless enough, so you then start to go down a list of bronze coin denominations that get progressively smaller, until you get to an onkia, a bronze coin so tiny it makes a U.S. penny look impressively large.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s worth only 10% of an obol, or basically a modern equivalent to 80-something cents, and its as low value as it gets in the pre-Roman Greek world. So what would that buy you in ancient times? Hardly anything at all, as this is a world where people sell you wheat in bulk, and simple hand-finished goods are expensive as everything is hand-made and labor intensive. So like the penny you get stuck with these as pocket change for basic transactions, not being able to do much with them. <b>Not even a cup of the worst low class unsweetened wine that&nbsp; tastes like half-vinegar at that questionable establishment. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie103" alt=":yack:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]774875[/ATTACH] <b>A typical onkia</b></p><p><br /></p><p>But hey, like pennies, eventually you might store enough of these in your cupboard that you may be able to actually buy something useful with them. Who knows, it can become a convenient way to slowly save some cash. Maybe after you&#039;ve saved enough of these you&#039;ll finally be able to see the priestess at the temple so she can say some prayers to heal that unsightly growth in your personal area <b>(I told you to stay away from that questionable establishment).</b> <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie9" alt=":eek:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie11" alt=":rolleyes:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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