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Encyclopedia > Drachma
Drachma
Image:1drachma1988front.jpg Image:1drachma1988back.jpg
1 drachma 1988

Drachma, pl. Drachmas or Drachmae (δραχμή, pl. δραχμές) is the name of both: 1 drachma 1988 front File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... 1 drachma 1988 back File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

  1. A modern Greek currency, introduced in 1832, and replaced by the Euro in 2001 (at the rate of 340.750 drachma to the Euro).
  2. An ancient currency unit found in many Greek city states and successor states, and in many middle-eastern kingdoms of the Hellenistic era.

The name Drachma is derived from the verb "δράττω" (dratto, to grasp). Initially a drachma was a fistful (a "grasp") of 6 oboloi, sticks of metal used as currency as early as 1100BC. 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The euro (€; ISO 4217 code EUR) is the currency of twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... The obolus (or obol) is a Greek silver coin worth a sixth of a drachma. ...

Enlarge
Tetradrachm from Athens about 490 BC

The 5th century BC Athenian tetradrachm ("four drachmae") coin was the most widely used coin in the Greek world prior to Alexander the Great. It featured the helmeted profile bust of Athena on the obverse (front) and an owl on the reverse (back). The reverse is featured on the national side of the Greek 1 euro coin, see Greek euro coins. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... (6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) // Events Demotic becomes the dominant script of ancient Egypt Persians invade Greece twice (Persian Wars) Battle of Marathon (490) Battle of Salamis (480) Athenian empire rises and falls Peloponnesian War... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... 1¢ euro coin A coin is generally a piece of hard material, generally metal and usually in the shape of a disc, which is used as a form of money. ... Alexander the Great - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... Greek euro coins feature a unique design for every one of the eight coins. ...


After Alexander the Great's conquests, the name Drachma was used in many of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Middle East, including the Ptolemaic kingdom in Alexandria. The Arabic unit of currency known as dirham (in the Arabic language, درهم), known from pre-Islamic times and afterwards, inherited its name from the drachma; the dirham is still the name of the official currencies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. The Armenian dram also derives its name from the drachma. Alexander the Great - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Greats generals, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexanders death in 323 BC. In 305 BC he declared himself King Ptolemy I, later known as Soter (saviour). ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية — al-Iskandariyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... The term the Middle East sometimes applies to the peninsula alone, but usually refers to the Arabian Peninsula plus the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran. ... The dirham (درهم) is a unit of currency and a unit of the dinar. ... Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Islam  listen? (Arabic: al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Symbol: None 1/100th unit: luma USD exchange: 438 (Apr 2005) GBP exchange: 929 (Jan 2005) The Dram (AMD) is the monetary unit of Armenia. ...


The drachma was also used in Ancient Rome in the 3rd century BC. It is difficult to give even comparative values for money from before the 20th century, due to vastly differing economies. Classical historians regularly say that in the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, the daily wage for a laborer was one Drachma. Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. ... (4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events The first two Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome over dominance in western Mediterranean Rome conquers Spain Great Wall of China begun Indian traders regularly visited Arabia Scythians occupy... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century) The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) was the representative government of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, sometimes placed at 44 BC (the year of Caesars appointment as perpetual... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ...


The drachma was reborn in 1832, soon after the establishment of the modern state of Greece. In 1868 Greece joined the Latin Monetary Union and the drachma became equal in weight and value to the French franc. During the German occupation of Greece (1941-1944), catastrophic hyperinflation and Nazi looting of the Greek treasury made the drachma practically worthless; in 1944, old drachmae were exchanged for new ones at the ratio of 50,000,000,000 to 1. The new currency was soon devaluated again; in 1953, in an effort to halt the slide, Greece joined the Bretton Woods system. In 1956 notes were again exchanged for new ones, at a ratio of 1,000 to 1; the new notes were pegged at 30 drachmae = 1 US dollar. The Latin Monetary Union was a 19th century attempt to unify several European currencies into a single currency that could be used in all the member states, at a time when most national currencies were still made out of gold and silver. ... Though abolished as a legal coin by Louis XIII in 1641 in favor of the gold louis or ecu, the term franc continued to be used in common parlance for the livre tournois. ... A 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) Mark banknote, issued in Bavaria/Germany during the hyperinflation of 1923 (http://www. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ...


In 1973, the Bretton Woods System was abolished; over the next 25 years the official exchange rate gradually declined, reaching 400 GRD = 1 USD.


Greece joined the European Economic and Monetary Union, on 1 January 2001, and exactly one year later, the drachma was officially replaced by the Euro at a rate of 340.75 drachmas to the Euro. The coins continued to be exchangeable into Euros until March 1, 2004. The banknotes will continue to be exchangeable until March 1, 2012. In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The euro (€; ISO 4217 code EUR) is the currency of twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 2012 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...



The ISO 4217 code for the Drachma is GRD; The currency sign is ₯ (Unicode character code #x20AF). ISO 4217 is an international standard describing three letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ... Graphic symbols are often used as a shorthand for currency names. ... In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ...


Coins in circulation at the time of the adoption of the Euro [1] 1¢ euro coin A coin is generally a piece of hard material, generally metal and usually in the shape of a disc, which is used as a form of money. ...

  • 50 Lepta (.147 Eurocents)^
  • 1 Drachma (.293 Eurocents)^
  • 2 Drachmae (.587 Eurocents)^
  • 5 Drachmae (1.47 Eurocents)
  • 10 Drachmae (2.93 Eurocents)
  • 20 Drachmae (5.87 Eurocents)
  • 50 Drachmae (14.67 Eurocents)
  • 100 Drachmae (29.35 Eurocents)
  • 500 Drachmae (1.47 Euros)

^Officially, but not in practice


Banknotes in circulation at the time of the adoption of the Euro [2] A £20 Ulster Bank banknote. ...

  • 100 drachmae (29.35 Eurocents)
  • 200 drachmae (58.69 Eurocents)
  • 500 drachmae (1.47 Euros)
  • 1000 drachmae (2.93 Euros)
  • 2000 drachmae (5.87 Euros)
  • 5000 drachmae (14.67 Euros)
  • 10,000 drachmae (29.35 Euros)

Historic currency divisions

6 obols = 1 drachma
100 drachmae = 1 mina (or mna)
60 minae = 1 Athenian Talent (Athenian standard)

Minae and talents were never actually minted: they represented weight measures used for commodities (e.g. grain) as well as metals like silver or gold A mina is an ancient Greek unit of weight defined as being 50 shekels. ... The Attic talent was a unit of weight and a denomination of money equal to 6,000 drachmae or 60 minae. ... A mina is an ancient Greek unit of weight defined as being 50 shekels. ...


Modern currency divisions

100 lepta = 1 drachma

Lepton pl. ...

External link

  • Overview of the modern Greek drachma from the BBC


Pre-euro currencies and non-euro currencies EU Flag
Eurozone Austrian schilling | Belgian franc | Dutch guilder | Finnish markka | French franc | German mark | Greek drachma | Irish pound | Italian lira | Luxembourg franc | Portuguese escudo | San Marinese lira | Spanish peseta | Vatican lira
ERM Cypriot pound | Danish krone1 | Estonian kroon | Latvian lat | Lithuanian litas | Maltese lira | Slovenian tolar
Other EU British pound1 | Czech koruna | Hungarian forint | Polish zloty | Slovak koruna | Swedish krona2
Notes:
1 – negotiated an opt-out and is not obliged to join the Eurozone.
2 – technically obliged to join the Eurozone, but deliberately fails to meet one of the Maastricht criteria (namely membership in ERM II).

  Results from FactBites:
 
Drachma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (609 words)
Initially a drachma was a fistful (a "grasp") of 6 oboloi, sticks of metal used as currency as early as 1100BC.
During the German occupation of Greece (1941-1944), catastrophic hyperinflation and Nazi looting of the Greek treasury made the drachma practically worthless; in 1944, old drachmae were exchanged for new ones at the ratio of 50,000,000,000 to 1.
Greece joined the European Economic and Monetary Union, on 1 January 2001, and exactly one year later, the drachma was officially replaced by the Euro at a rate of 340.75 drachmas to the Euro.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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