- The Collaborative Numismatics Project
  Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! NumisWiki Is An Enormous Unique Resource Including Hundreds Of Books And Thousands Of Articles Online!!! The Column On The Left Includes Our "Best of NumisWiki" Menu If You Are New To Collecting - Start With Ancient Coin Collecting 101 NumisWiki Includes The Encyclopedia of Roman Coins and Historia Nummorum If You Have Written A Numismatic Article - Please Add It To NumisWiki All Blue Text On The Website Is Linked - Keep Clicking To ENDLESSLY EXPLORE!!! Please Visit Our Shop And Find A Coin You Love Today!!!

× Resources Home
Home
New Articles
Most Popular
Recent Changes
Current Projects
Admin Discussions
Guidelines
How to
zoom.asp
Index Of All Titles


BEST OF

AEQVITI
Aes Formatum
Aes Rude
The Age of Gallienus
Alexander Tetradrachms
Ancient Coin Collecting 101
Ancient Coin Prices 101
Ancient Coin Dates
Ancient Coin Lesson Plans
Ancient Coins & Modern Fakes
Ancient Counterfeits
Ancient Glass
Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Ancient Oil Lamps
Ancient Pottery
Ancient Weapons
Ancient Wages and Prices
Ancient Weights and Scales
Anonymous Follis
Anonymous Class A Folles
Antioch Officinae
Aphlaston
Armenian Numismatics Page
Augustus - Facing Portrait
Brockage
Bronze Disease
Byzantine
Byzantine Denominations
A Cabinet of Greek Coins
Caesarean and Actian Eras
Campgates of Constantine
Carausius
A Case of Counterfeits
Byzantine Christian Themes
Clashed Dies
Codewords
Coins of Pontius Pilate
Conditions of Manufacture
Corinth Coins and Cults
Countermarked in Late Antiquity
Danubian Celts
Damnatio Coinage
Damnatio Memoriae
Denomination
Denarii of Otho
Diameter 101
Die Alignment 101
Dictionary of Roman Coins
Doug Smith's Ancient Coins
Draco
Edict on Prices
ERIC
ERIC - Rarity Tables
Etruscan Alphabet
The Evolving Ancient Coin Market
EQVITI
Fel Temp Reparatio
Fertility Pregnancy and Childbirth
Fibula
Flavian
Fourree
Friend or Foe
The Gallic Empire
Gallienus Zoo
Greek Alphabet
Greek Coins
Greek Dates
Greek Coin Denominations
Greek Mythology Link
Greek Numismatic Dictionary
Hellenistic Names & their Meanings
Hasmoneans
Hasmonean Dynasty
Helvetica's ID Help Page
The Hexastyle Temple of Caligula
Historia Numorum
Holy Land Antiquities
Horse Harnesses
Illustrated Ancient Coin Glossary
Important Collection Auctions
Islamic Rulers and Dynasties
Julian II: The Beard and the Bull
Julius Caesar - The Funeral Speech
Koson
Kushan Coins
Later Roman Coinage
Latin Plurals
Latin Pronunciation
Legend
Library of Ancient Coinage
Life in Ancient Rome
List of Kings of Judea
Medusa Coins
Maps of the Ancient World
Military Belts
Military Belts
Mint Marks
Monogram
Museum Collections Available Online
Nabataea
Nabataean Alphabet
Nabataean Numerals
The [Not] Cuirassed Elephant
Not in RIC
Numismatic Bulgarian
Numismatic Excellence Award
Numismatic French
Numismatic German
Numismatic Italian
Numismatic Spanish
Parthian Coins
Patina 101
Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew Script Styles
People in the Bible Who Issued Coins
Imperial Mints of Philip the Arab
Phoenician Alphabet
Pi-Style Athens Tetradrachms
Pricing and Grading Roman Coins
Reading Judean Coins
Representations of Alexander the Great
Roman Coin Attribution 101
Roman Coin Legends and Inscriptions
Roman Keys
Roman Locks
Roman Militaria
Roman Military Belts
Roman Mints
Roman Names
romancoin.info
Rome and China
Sasanian
Satyrs and Nymphs
Scarabs
Serdi Celts
Serrated
Siglos
The Sign that Changed the World
Silver Content of Parthian Drachms
Star of Bethlehem Coins
Statuary Coins
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
Syracusian Folles
Taras Drachms with Owl Left
The Temple Tax
The Temple Tax Hoard
Test Cut
Travels of Paul
Tribute Penny
Tribute Penny Debate Continued (2015)
Tribute Penny Debate Revisited (2006)
Tyrian Shekels
Uncleaned Ancient Coins 101
Vabalathus
Venus Cloacina
What I Like About Ancient Coins
Who was Trajan Decius
Widow's Mite
XXI

   View Menu
 

Ancient Weights and Scales

Ancient and Medieval Weights and Scales for sale at Forum Ancient Coins

Ancient Scales and Weights on the Classical Numismatics Discussion

Weights are among the more common objects of pre-modern societies. Weights and a balance were essential for measuring quantities of many commodities and for evaluating coins. In the Islamic world, balance weights were made of metal, glass, or stone. If the mass of any small solid object conforms to an appropriate weight unit, it is likely to be a balance weight. Many excavated weights have been wrongly identified as game pieces or tokens.

Probably the most common class of weights are those for evaluating coins. The weights of pre-industrial handmade coins were often regulated loosely or not at all. Nearly every monetary transaction, therefore, required the use of a balance with weights, to ensure that the coins being transferred were of full weight or to measure their value as a direct function of their total mass. Every merchant, money changer, and fiscal official had a balance and a set of weights for the coins he used. Bakers in eleventh-century Cairo, for example, had weights for the bread they sold and for the coins they received (al-Musabbi hi, 63; Bates, "Function," 71). -- Michael Bates in Bates Weights.

References

Balog, P. "Fatimid Glass Jetons: Token Currency or Coin-Weights?" in JESHO 24 (1981), pp. 93-109.
Balog, P. "Islamic Bronze Weights from Egypt" in JESHO 13 (1970), pp. 235 - 255. Online
Balog, P. "Pesi di bronzo islamici del XIII secolo" in Quaderni ticinesi di numismatica e antichità classiche 1973, pp. 179-193.
Balog, P. "Poids forts fatimites en plomb," Revue Belge de Numismatique 105 (1959), pp. 171-88. PDF Online
Balog, P. "The Fatimid Glass Jeton" in Annali dell'Istituto Italiano di Numismatica 18-19 (1971-72), pp. 175-264; and 20 (1973), pp. 121-212.
Bates, M. "How Egyptian Glass Coin Weights Were Used" in Rivista Italiana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini 95 (1993), pp. 539-545.
Bates, M. "The Function of Fatimid and Ayyubid Glass Weights" in JESHO 24 (1981), pp. 63-92.
Bates, M. "Weights" for Encyclopedia of Islamic Archaeology (unpublished). PDF Online
Bernard, S. "Notice sur les poids arabes anciens et modernes" in Description de l'egypte...l'expedition de l'armee francaise, XVI. (Paris, 1825), pp. 73-106.
Bendall, S. Byzantine Weights, An Introduction. (London, 1996).
Campagnolo, M. & K. Weber. Poids Romano-Byzantins et Byzantins en Alliage Cuivreux Collections du Museée d'Art et d'Histoire - Genéve. (2015).
Curiel, R. & P. Gignoux. "Un poids arabo-sasanide" in Studia Iranica 5 (1976), pp. 165-169.
de Rochesnard, J.F. Album des poids antiques. (Colombes, no date).
Dieudonné, A. Manuel des poids monétaires. (Paris, 1925).
Dürr, N. Catalogue des poids byzantins. Muséed'Art et d’Histoire de Genève. (Geneva, 1964).
Entwistle, C. "Late Roman and Byzantine Weights and Weighing Equipment" in The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies (Oxford, 2008), ch. I.2, pp. 1-11.
Elayi, J. & Elayi A. Reherches sur les poids Pheniciens. (Paris, 1997).
Hafford, W. "Hanging in the Balance: Precision Weighing in Antiquity" in Expedition 47 (2005).
Hafford, W. "Tools of Ancient Trade: Balance Pan Weights in the Egyptian Museum" in Studies for the Centennial of the Egyptian Museum. (Cairo, 2002), pp. 503 - 512. PDF Online
Hendin, D. Ancient Scale Weights and Pre-Coinage Currency of the Near East. (New York, 2007).
Holland, L. "Islamic Bronze Weights from Caesarea Maritima" in ANSMN 31 (New York, 1986). PDF Online
Holland, L. Weights and Weight-Like Objects From Caesarea Maritima. (Hadera, 2009).
Houben, G. The Weighing of Money. (Zwolle, Netherlands, 1982).
Ibrahim, T. "Ponderales andaluses" in Numisma 233 (July-December 1993), pp. 39-68.
Kisch, B. Scales and weights. (Massachusetts, 1965).
Kletter, R. "Bronze Cubical Weights from the Collections from the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv" in Jerusalem and the land of Israel I (2000), pp. 30 - 41. PDF Online
Kletter, R. Economic Keystones: The Weight System of the Kingdom of Judah. (Sheffield, UK, 1998).
Kletter, R. "Weights and Measures" in New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (NIDB), Vol. V (2009), pp 831 - 841. PDF Online
Krapivina, V.V. "Bronze Weights from Olbia" in Black Sea Studies 1 (Aarhus University Press, 2003), pp. 117 - 130. PDF Online
Kroll, J. & C. Gatzolis. Balance Weights Excavated in the Chalkidike. (Louvain, 2022).
Lane-Poole, S. Catalogue of Arabic Glass Weights in the British Museum. (London, 1891).
Manns, F. Some Weights of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods: English translation by Godfrey Kloetzli. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Museum 7. (Jerusalem, 1984).
Meshorer, Y. Ancient Means of Exchange, Weights and Coins. The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum Collection A. (Haifa, 1998).
Morton, A. A Catalogue of Early Islamic Glass Stamps in the British Museum. (London, 1985).
Mutz, A. Romische Waagen und Gewichte aus Augst und Kaisaraugst. Augster Museumshefte 6. (Augst, Switzerland, 1983). PDF Online
Petrie, F. Ancient Weights and Measures. (London, 1926). PDF Online
Ronen, Y. "Coins as scale weights" in INR 5, 2010.
Tekin, O. "Ancient and Ottoman Weights in the Collection of Bursa Museum" in Tarhan Armagani. (Istanbul, 2013). pp. 329 - 338. PDF Online
Tekin, O. Balance weights in the Aegean world, Classical and Hellenistic periods. (Istanbul, 2016).
Tekin, O. "Balance Weights in the Collection of the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara" in Anatolia Antiqua XXIV (2016), pp. 211 - 222. Available online
Tekin, O. "Two Hellenistic Weights of Cyzicus From Dascylium" in Anatolia 39 (2013), pp. 121-127. PDF Online
Tekin, O. "Weights of Cyzicus in Athens Numismatic Museum" in Anatolia Antiqua XXI (2013).
Tushingham, A.D. Excavations in Jerusalem, 1961-67 Vol. I. (Toronto, 1985).
Weber, K. Byzantinische Münzgewichte: Materialkorpus Für 1-Nomisma-Gewichte: Studien Zur Vielfalt Der Ausführungsform, Metrologie Und Herstellung. (Solingen, 2009). Purchase online.
Weber, K. Late Antiquity Weights. Supplement 16. (Solingen, 2013).
Whitehouse, D. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Three. (Rochester, 1997).


Hieratic shekel

  Hieratic h=2

   Hieratic s=3

Hieratic 8 shekels

Hieratic 20 shekels

All coins are guaranteed for eternity