Obol
An obol is an ancient Greek coin that has one-sixth the value of a drachma. The first silver obols were minted in Aegina, most likely sometime after 600 BCE. Previously, the unit of currency was iron cooking-spits. One obol became the equivalent of one spit. Obols in Aegina were produced from one gram of silver. Though some other parts of Greece adopted the obol, the amount of silver was different in obols of different regions. In Athens an obol would weigh only .72 grams, while in Corinth it weighed .42 grams. There were several coins minted which were variations of the obol. Silver obols and triobols (three obol pieces) were among the most common coins in Thessaly, while central Thrace minted large numbers of tetrobols, triobols, and diobols. Macedonia not only had coins of different obol values (the most common were octobols and tetrobols), but had two different types of tetrobols—heavy and light—which were measured on different standards. Light t...