Obol (coin)

A mite ( ancient Greek ὀβολός, plural ὀβολοί - Obolos, Pl oboloi, German " spit, spit " ) in ancient Greece was a silver coin with the value of one -sixth of the drachma. Six thousand drachmas had a talent of silver.

Word meanings

Originally the term referred to a small skewer. Since coins are not round and embossed with the image were initially, but simply small pointed pieces of metal were ( hacksilver ), they were also referred to as " spikes ". From the Greek word Obolos was the obolus, which came as a borrowing from German in Latin. The linguistically related term Obelisk incidentally also called a pike -like shape.

Spreads can be found in the German and the incorrect spelling " mite ".

In addition to the Greek coin, a small amount of money, a fee, gift, tip or bribe is called a mite in a figurative sense. The expression is found for example in the phrase make his payment again, which means as much as " contribute ".

The term has, therefore, among other things, continues to this day, because it plays a role in Greek mythology. (Called " Charonspfennig " ) The small coin was placed the dead Greeks in ancient times as grave goods placed under the tongue before they were buried. She served as the fare thereof, for the ferryman Charon for passage of the dead across the river Styx into the underworld of Hades.

In the Middle Ages there were in various European countries small coins (also obol ) were called mite. They had the value of half a denarius ( penny = ).

The 1819 minted coins of the Ionian Islands also were called oboloi.