The Reichsmark was never an international currency.So studying inflation in the Weimar Republic is not enough.This post traces the history of the Drachma,Denarius,Bezant and Dinar–the international currencies of antiquity.I think knowing this history will help us see the parallels and understand our world better.If macro-economics is not really your thing,atleast knowing about the coins should give a rough idea of which ones would be more collectable for their bullion content!
The Drachma
The Greeks minted stunningly beautiful coins.Non-Greeks thousands of miles away treasured these coins and so they became the first “international currency”.Archeologists have found Greek coins as far away as China, India and Northern Europe. In fact, even though Rome soon rose to eclipse Greece, most Asians kept using Greek money for centuries.
The main currency of Greece was the Athenian Drachma (pic on the left). It was a silver coin, and its weight and quality stayed amazingly consistent through the centuries. From Solon, around 600 BC, to Alexander the Great, around 300 years later, it stayed exactly 67 grains of fine silver. This was the money Alexander brought to India, and from there it traded yet further East becoming the monetary standard of all Asia. And even as Greece declined and was finally absorbed into Rome, its value did not fall much. By the end of the Drachma’s life, it had only declined to 65 grains of fine silver. This is an extraordinary achievement. No other civilization has ever had an international currency that stayed the same value —or pretty much so, since a fall from 67 to 65 grains of silver is a loss of less than 3%. And this was not only during the period of its greatest influence, but even as it declined in power over a period of six centuries.Whatever the secret of the Greeks was, no international currency since then has ever been able to keep its value, even as the government issuing it started on its seemingly inevitable decline.Certainly the conquering Romans were astounded at how the Greeks had mastered money. They paid Greece the ultimate monetary compliment by fashioning their own money, the Roman Denarius, as an exact copy of the Drachma right down to the size and weight. Read more of this post
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Alternative Assets, Precious Metals, Theory, Tidbits, Tool Kit
Tagged with 6 carats, Africa, Alexander the Great, Alexius Comneus, America's Great Depression, Anastasius, Ancient Greeks, Andalusia, antiquity, Antoninianus, Arabian peninsula, Arabs, Aristotle, asia, Athenian Drachma, Aureus, Baghdad, bankers, base metals, Basilica di San Vitale, Battle of Milvian Bridge, black markets, book, Book of the Prefect, British Museum, Bullion, business, Byzantine Empire, Byzantium, Cairo, Caracalla, cash, Christ, Christian Church, Christianity, Christians, church of Sant Apollinare Nuovo, clip coins, confiscate property, Constantine, Constantinople, convivienca, copper coins, Cordoba, Council of Nicea, currencies, Damascus, Dark Ages, debase currency, debt, Delhi, devaluation, Dirhem, Edict of Milan, Egyptian, Egyptians, Elgin Groseclose, Emperor Diocletian, Emperor Heraclius, Emperor Nero, France, Genoa, Ghana, God of Abraham, Gold, gold coins, Goths, Granada, Greece, Greek Coins, Hagia Sophia, hard currency, history, hoard, Holy Land, Huns, Imperial Romans, India, Inflation, interest, international currency, Islam, Islamic coins, Istanbul, Italian City States, Jerusalem, Jews, Julius Caesar, Law of Maximum, Mecca, Mohammad, monetary history, monetary system, Money and Man, money changers, mosaics, Muslims, Orthodox Church, Ottoman Turks, pagan gods, Persia, Persian Empire, Pope Leo IV, postaday2011, poverty, Praetorian Guard, prices, prices soaring, RandomBlog2011, Ravenna, reduce taxes, Reichsmark, Roman Coins, Roman Denarius, Roman Empire, Roman persecution, Rpme, Septimus Serverus, Sicily, silver coins, slave, Sol, Solidius, Solon, Spain, St.Peter's, Syria, The Bezant, The Denarius, The Dinar, The Drachma, Thomas Carlyle, Tiber, Toledo, trader, treasury, trinity, Tripoli, Turkey, Umayyad Caliph Abdel Malik, Vandals, Vatican Palace, Venetian Crusaders, Venice, Visigoths, wage and price control, Weimar Republic
This article was published in today’s Mumbai Mirror.Reading it took me back to another time when India was a very different place.I was then still in school.India was anything but shining.Poverty and shortages were so much a fact of life that few of us really had an idea of how poor we were since everyone around us was in the same situation and most people had very little exposure to what was going on in the rest of the world.There was no talk of India being an emerging/emerged nation.We considered ourselves as belonging strictly to the Third World and few asked why we should not want better for ourselves.Read the article below and if you’re Indian take a minute to pat yourself on the back for how far we have come in 2 decades.Take heart from it and know that we have it in us to overcome out present problems.And remember the story so that we are never again in the same situation. Read more of this post
wealthymatters 