Athenian owl tetradrachm becomes the dominant ancient trade currency
- Date
- c. 449 BCE
- Category
- Economy & trade
- Region
- Europe
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
By the mid-fifth century BCE the silver tetradrachm of Athens, struck from the rich Laurion mines of southern Attica and bearing the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and her owl with an olive sprig and the letters ATHE on the reverse, had become the most trusted and widely accepted coin of the ancient Mediterranean.
Minted to the Attic standard of roughly 17.2 grams of nearly pure silver and prized for its consistent weight and fineness, the 'owl' circulated far beyond Greece, with hoards recovered from Egypt and the Levant to Arabia and as far east as India. Its primacy was reinforced around 449 BCE by the Athenian Coinage Decree (the Standards Decree), which sought to impose Athenian silver coinage, weights, and measures on the allied states of the Delian League, requiring them to close local mints and adopt the Attic standard. The decree both expressed and entrenched Athenian imperial power, lubricating commerce across the Aegean while curbing the monetary autonomy of subject cities. So dominant did the owl become that it was extensively imitated by Egyptian, Levantine, and Near Eastern issuers, functioning in effect as the international reserve currency of its age for over three centuries.
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Empires active in c. 449 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
- Achaemenid Empire550 BCE – 330 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
Related economy & trade events
- Laurion silver strike funds the Athenian fleet483 BC
- Invention of Standardised Coinage in Lydia (the Lydian Stater)c. 630 BCE
- Crisis of the Third Century and the Collapse of the Roman Denarius235–285 AD
- Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices301 CE
- Sangam-Age Tamil Kingdoms and the Muziris Pepper Tradec. 100 BCE – 200 CE
- Salt and Iron Debate at the Han Court81 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Best-selling world history told through the trade routes that moved goods, faiths and ideas.
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