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The 'daric' was a gold coin used within the Persian Empire. It weighs around eight grams and bears the image of the Persian king or a great warrior armed with a bow and arrow, but who is depicted is not known for sure. The coin was introduced by King Darius I of Persia some time between 522 BC and 486 BC and ended with Alexander the Great's invasion in 330 BC.
The coin is mentioned several times in the Old Testament, as the Israelites came into contact with it when their Babylonian conquerors were conquered by Persia.
The first Book of Chronicles describes king David as asking an assembly of people to donate for the construction of the Temple. The people gave generously "for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand ''darics of gold'', ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron."^[1] Since David's reign is believed to be between ''c.'' 1011 and ''c.'' 971 BC according to Old Testament chronology, the use of the ''daric'' is either an anachronism or a conversion by the writer into contemporary units.^[2][3]
There is also a double ''daric'' issued either by Darius or Alexander around 350 BC- 330 BC but information on this is scarce.
Some, such as the Ancient Greeks, believed that this coin's name is derived from the name Darius, but in reality it appears to be derived from a Persian word meaning "gold"; in Middle Persian it is called ''zarig''.

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See also

References

See also

★ Achaemenid currency

References

1. (New Revised Standard Version), emphasis added.
2. The HarperCollins Study Bible, Ralph W. Klein, , , HarperCollins, 1993,
3. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, John H. Walton, , , InterVarsity Press, 2000,