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DRACHMA (δραχμή), the name of a weight and of a denomination of coin among the Greeks. As weight and as coin it was the hundredth part of the mina, and was divided into six lesser units called ὀβολοί. [See PONDERA ad init.] The ancients (Etym. Mag. s. v. ὀβελίσκος: Pollux, 9.77) connected the word with δράσσομαι, “I grasp,” and δράγμα, “a handful,” and supposed that a drachm was originally the value in silver of a handful of six ὀβολοι, or wedge-shaped pieces of metal, which circulated as money. It is, however, very doubtful if this derivation is not a mere fancy: it is far more probable that δραχμή, like δαρεικός, is connected with the Persian word darag, “a part,” since the weight of the drachm seems to be derived by division of the mina, rather than the weight of the mina to be produced by multiplication of the drachm.
The ordinary denominations of Greek coins were: for gold, the didrachm (double drachm), drachm, hemi-drachm, and smaller divisions ; for silver, the same, with the addition of the tetradrachm, and occasionally of the decadrachm. The weight of the drachm varied according to the standard to which it belonged [see tables under PONDERA; the heaviest drachm was the Aeginetan of 96 grains, worth in silver rather more than a shilling of our money: it was
Aeginetan Drachm. (British Museum. Actual size.)
called at Athens παχεῖα δραχμή (Pollux, 9.76). The Athenian drachm weighed but 67.5
Attic Drachm: late. (British Museum. Actual size.)
grains, and the Corinthian only 45 grains, value about sixpence. The sign for drachm in Attic inscriptions is [drachm1]. As the Romans reckoned in sesterces, so the Greeks generally reckoned by drachmae; and when a sum is mentioned in the Attic writers, without any specification of the unit, drachmae are usually meant.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
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