The Babylonians arrived at their silver standard as follows:
1 gold shekel of 130 grs. was worth 1730 grs. of silver (130 × 13·3), since gold was to silver as 13·3:1.
130 grs. gold = 1730 grs. silver.
They divided this amount of silver by 10, and thus:
1 gold shekel of 130 grs. = 10 silver shekels of 173 grs.
As we stated already, Herodotus says that the Babylonian talent was equal to 70 Euboic minas, that is, one-sixth more than the Euboic talent. The latter contained 390,000 grs. Troy, therefore the Babylonian ought to give 455,000 grs. If we multiply our silver shekel by 50 and then by 60, we shall obtain a total amount for the talent of silver of 519,000 grs. Unfortunately several inaccuracies have crept into the text of Herodotus, numerals always being especially liable to corruption in MSS. He seems, however, to have regarded the relation of the Euboic to the Babylonian talent as about that of 5:6, and also to have estimated the current weight of the Persian silver piece at about 162 grs. Troy. But there can be little doubt that the full standard weight of the Babylonian silver shekel was 169 grs. (or, according to Mr Head, 172·9 grs.).
From this it is easy to construct the Babylonian silver system, which was employed in Lydia and in the Persian empire.
| 1 | shekel | = | 169 grs. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | shekels | = | 1 | mina | = | 7450, |
| 60 | minae | = | 1 talent 447000. |