DRACHM (6PaXgh, drachma), a principal sil ver coin of the Greeks, which became current among the Jews after the exile (2 Maccab. iv. 19 ; X. 20 ; xii. 43 ; Luke xv. 8, 9).* It is of various weights, according to the use of the different talents.
I. The drachm of the Ptolemaic or Alexandrian talent weighed about 58 grains, but fell gradually to a much lower rate. was the drachm used in Thrace and Macedon before the time of Alex ander the Great. It was restored in the coinage of the kings of Egypt, and weighed about 55 grains. This talent was used in Egypt, and at Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus.
2. The drachm of the later Phoenician or Persian talent weighed about 58 to 59 grains. This talent in Palestine merged into the talent of Egypt during the sway of the Ptolemies. It was used at Aradus, and by the Persians.
3. The drachm of the Attic talent, which became almost universal after Alexander, weighed about 66.7 grains. In later times (about B. C. 27) it weighed only 61•3 grains, and thus became very nearly equal to the Roman denarius, the average weight of which was 6o grains. Under the earlier emperors it fell as low as 55 grains.
With the drachm of the Eginetan talent, which weighed about 96 grains, we have nothing to do, as the first three talents only were known to the Jews. Each of our shillings contains 80•7 grains of alloy. The earliest Attic drachm is there fore worth igu of a shilling, or 9.91 pence, which is 91 of a farthing, or maybe called tenpence.
The drachms mentioned in 2 Maccabees are most likely of the Seleucidx, and therefore of the Attic standard. The later Attic drachm is worth -E",;:.1
of a shilling, or 9'55 pence, which is 9 ± s of a farthing. From this the value of the latest or N. T. drachm may therefore have been about eight pence. This value is of course merely nominal, for the real value of money was far greater in the time of our Lord than at present. The ten pieces of silver (Spax,cacs ldca) mentioned in Luke xv. 8, are most likely denarii, for the Attic drachm and the denarius were at that time identical, and the latter had almost, if not altogether, superseded the former. This accounts for the remark of Jose phus, crth:Xos* . . . . 'ArriKets. Sexerae Acts 7-1.0-crapas (A 'nig. yud. iii. 8. 2). At this same period the denarius was almost equal to the quarter of a Maccabrean shekel. Josephus is then speak ing of four of the current Attic drachms, to which four Ptolemaic drachms of the shekel, and four denarii of his time, were equal.
There are also pieces struck at Ephesus a little earlier than the time of Josephus, with the inscrip tions APAXMit and AIAPAXMON, having the weight of a denarius and of two denarii. The thirty pieces of silver mentioned in Zech. xi. 12 are probably shekels, while those mentioned in Matt. xxvi. i5 ; xxvii. 3, 9, as also the fifty thousand pieces in Acts xix. 19, are most likely denarii, if these latter are not drachma; of account. In all these cases the word 'Ap-riptov is employed. —F. W. M.