Mina (unit)

Mine (Latin mina, Greek mna, Hebrew manäh, sumerian MA.NA ) denotes various masses and coin units of antiquity.

A talent was generally divided into 60 mines. However, the subdivision of the mine was different locally:

  • 50 shekels in Babylon
  • 60 shekels in Mesopotamia
  • 100 drachmas in the Greco- Hellenistic world

The weight of a mine was about 430 grams at the time of Peloponnesisches war. The base of the Attic Münzstandards was the tetradrachm from silver with a weight of 17.2 grams. From this, the weight of an Attic (or Athenian ) Mine silver are determined to 430 grams (25 tetradrachms à 17.2 grams).

Diodorus Siculus states that the Balearic slingers in the service of Hamilcar at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus (256 BC) stone projectiles with a weight of one Mina Missed (Book XIX, 109).

Mine of Chios

Mine of Antiochus IV

Mine of Antioch on the Orontes

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