{"id":272360,"date":"2020-06-05T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T17:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabcollector.com\/?p=272360"},"modified":"2020-10-29T07:01:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T07:01:50","slug":"when-our-fingers-touch-an-old-coin-we-must-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arabcollector.com\/en\/%d8%b9%d9%86%d8%af%d9%85%d8%a7-%d8%aa%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%84%d9%86%d8%a7-%d8%b9%d9%85%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%82%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%a9%d8%8c-%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%af-%d9%84%d9%86\/","title":{"rendered":"When our fingers touch an old coin, we inevitably wonder about its purchasing power during its period of circulation\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coin shown is an obol, a Roman-Egyptian coin minted in Alexandria around 2,000 years ago, in the first century AD, during the reign of Emperor Claudius. The obol was a coin introduced by the Greeks and retained by the Romans. Six obols were equivalent to one drachma. It was always made of bronze and weighed between 8 and 12 grams (depending on the minting period), with a diameter of approximately 2.5 cm. The ancient Alexandrians minted coins in denominations of one, two (called diopole), and three (called tetrapoles), in addition to the drachma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first century AD, the wage of a laborer, or manual worker, was generally 3 opoles per day, equivalent to half a drachma. With inflation in the second century, this wage sometimes reached 7 or 10 opoles. A loaf of bread (a huge loaf, let alone today's loaves!) sold for one opole in the first century and reached 4 opoles at once in the second century. The cost of renting a donkey for a day was 10 opoles (ironically, the rental price of a donkey was equivalent to the wages of more than three laborers!), while the price of buying a donkey exceeded 200 drachmas. However, prices in Egypt were still much cheaper than in the rest of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moheb Rizkalla<\/p>\n\n\n\n