In ancient Greece as in medieval Europe, financial difficulties led rulers to lower the weight of the coinage. But while in Europe, in England for instance, more pennies were coined from the mint-pound of silver, this remaining fixed, although nominally based on the weight of the sterling, the weights of Greece were actually based on that of the drachma.

When the drachma was diminished in weight, the miná and the talent both dropped proportionately. Thus the standard of the Alexandrian talent, carefully preserved in Egypt, dropped in Greece.

Drachma Miná
of
100 drachmæ		 Talent
of
60 miná
Egypt 109-1/4grs. 10,926grs. 93·65lb.
Ægina,early 105„ 10,560„ 90·5„
„before 700 103·7„ 10,370„ 88·9„
„after 700 95·68„ 9,568„ 81·76„
Athens,600 B.C. 93·08„ 9,308„ 79·78„

So in Athens, where the Ægina standard was in use, the drachma stood at 93·08 grains when, in 594 B.C., Solon’s Seisachthia law ‘unburdened’ the State and other debtors by decreeing that 73 (or more accurately 72-1/2) drachmæ should now be equal to 100 drachmæ, and altering the coinage accordingly.

This reduced the coin-weights of Athens to—

DrachmaDidrachmaMináTalent
67·37 grs.125·74 grs.6737 grs.57·75 lb.

But commercial weight remained the same. The miná emporikí, the trade miná, was fixed at 138 of the new drachmæ, so that it continued to be 100 of the old drachmæ: 138 × 67·37 = 100 × 93·08 grains.

The commercial miná thus remained at the 600 B.C. standard of 9308 grains = 1·33 lb. and the talent at 79·78 lb.[[9]]

In settling the reduction of the Attic money-weight at 100 new drachmæ = 73 old drachmæ, Solon probably fixed on the latter figure in order to make the new talent, = 57·74 lb., have approximately the simple ratio of 4 : 5 with the Greek-Asiatic talent—

4/5 × 72·13 lb. = 57·704 lb.