c. 520 BCE–c. 260 BCE
Athenian tetradrachms as high-denomination civic coinage
Money, banking & finance · Currency and payments
Athens struck silver tetradrachms with Athena and the owl from the late sixth century BCE; the type remained recognisable for centuries. This entry follows the standardisation and trust of one specific civic currency, not the origin of all coinage—which is treated in the World layer—and does not assume that it displaced credit, payments in kind, or local coins.
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · approximate
- End
- year · approximate
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: duration of a process.
Sources
- www.britishmuseum.org (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Pending verification
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.