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What happens now that Greece has voted No in the referendum on whether to accept a proposal for more austerity to earn another bailout? The Euro may not be valid there for much longer and Greece will have to have its own currency.
The drachma, its former currency, is in focus. This is one of the world’s oldest brands of legal tender, and traces its roots back to 500 BC. The tetradrachm, which equalled four drachmas, was a coin that had the profile of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, on one side, and an olive branch and an owl on the other — a symbol of wisdom and a bird which can see things people cannot.
Later on, it gained popularity across the Mediterranean areas and even reached India, due to the conquests of Alexander the Great.
At over 1,200 years of age, the pound sterling is the oldest currency in the world. The first silver pennies were minted in the 8th century AD. Know why it is represented as £? Its name comes from the Latin word libra for weight or balance, and the phrase libra pondo , meaning a pound weight. This is also why the pound, as a unit of weight, is written as lb. As with many other currencies that are linked to the weight of a commodity, the value of a pound was that of the price of a pound of silver.
The shekel, according to one account, was equivalent to 180 grains of barley, and dates back to 3,000 BC. Coins appeared only around 2400 BC. Since 1980, the shekel has been the currency of Israel – first the Israeli shekel, and since 1986, the Israeli new sheqel.
And India’s own rupee? The term comes from the Sanskrit raupyak , which means silver, and rupya , which means a coin containing an impression. India was one of the first issuers of coins, as far back as the 6th century BC. The modern rupee’s history dates back to the rule of Sher Shah Suri, who introduced it in 1541. It then weighed as much as 175 grains troy/11.34 gm of silver. Countries besides India that have named their currency the rupee or some form of it include Pakistan, Mauritius, Indonesia (rupiah), Nepal, Seychelles and Maldives (rufiyaa).
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