Coin (obverse), Didrachm

This silver didrachm of Rome was struck between 269 and 266 BC. This picture shows the obverse of the coin. It is not clear where coins of this type were minted, though some scholars have associated them with Rome.

A didrachm had a value of two drachmai. The coin's weight averaged 4 grams or slightly above, with a diameter of about 16 millimeters. The drachm supposedly took its name from a handful (drax) of six iron spits (obeloi), which were formerly used as currency. This ratio of six obols to the drachm continued long after the invention of coinage. The word is probably derived from "drax" - Greek for as much as you could hold in a hand. The Romans also used drachmai but created a new system of coinage around about 211 BC.

The obverse depicts the bust of the hero Hercules, his hair bound with a ribbon, with a club and lion skin over his shoulder.

The earliest Roman silver coins were modelled on Greek types, in a denomination known as a didrachm. However, only during or after the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC) did the Romans start an unbroken sequence of minting coins.

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