The tiny one is silver, the large one is bronze. The large one was struck in Egypt where they did not have any silver mines, so they couldn’t strike silver coins, at least not to the degree they wanted to. That’s the theory at least 🙂
Nah, the little one is with much less. A hemitetartemorion is worth 1/8th of an obol, so the octobol is worth 64 times as much as the small silver coin 🙂
Is the tiny one gold? What’s the large one? Why would they have such a huge coin instead of just using a smaller coin of more precious metals?
The tiny one is silver, the large one is bronze. The large one was struck in Egypt where they did not have any silver mines, so they couldn’t strike silver coins, at least not to the degree they wanted to. That’s the theory at least 🙂
Yikes! Can you imagine having to cart a bunch of those across town to pay a large bill, like buying some cattle, or a horse?
Edit: would those two coins be about equivalent in value?
Nah, the little one is with much less. A hemitetartemorion is worth 1/8th of an obol, so the octobol is worth 64 times as much as the small silver coin 🙂