Material: fine silver Diameter: 22 mm Weight: 17.2 g
In the time of Athens, the Tetradrachm was probably the most common coin in the entire Greek region. It had the head of the goddess Athena on the obverse and an owl, its symbol, on the reverse, and usually the abbreviated inscription ATHE, i.e. athenaión, belonging to the Athenians. In common parlance, they were called glaukai (owls) and from this comes the saying "to bring owls to Athens", where there are plenty of them. Determining the value of the drachma is almost impossible, because price and wage conditions changed frequently and significantly. For orientation, however, it can be calculated that in classical Athens, the drachma was a day to two days' wage for a skilled craftsman and that his family also lived off it.
