Chalcus
（
χαλκοῦς or
χαλκίον).
Under
Aes some account has been given of the use of
bronze or copper for money, which began in most parts of the Greek world about B.C. 400. At
Athens, the chalcus, or “copper”
par excellence, is
said by Pollux (ix. 65) to have been equivalent to the eighth of an obol; in some other places
it was the sixth of an obol, and contained seven lepta.
Copper coins (
χαλκία) were first issued at Athens in the
archonship of Callias, B.C. 406. In the
Ecclesiazusae (816 B.C.) Aristophanes
speaks of the demonetization of certain copper coins, and the reversion to a silver currency.
It seems likely that the coins referred to in both these passages are the pieces still extant
with the head of Athené on one side, and an owl with two bodies and one head on the
other, which resemble the silver diobols of Athens. Coins of late period struck in Syria bear
the inscription
χαλκοῦς, which declares their value.
Δίχαλκα and other multiples of the chalcus were also struck at Chios
and other places. When, however, bronze coins do not bear inscriptions stating their value,
the latter cannot with certainty be fixed. See
Numismatics.
