ADARCONIM1, a sort of Money, whereof there is mention made in 1 Chr. xxix. 7. and Ezra viii. 27. The Vulgate translates it golden Pence, the Septuagint pieces of Gold. We do not question but that these Adarconim2 were Daricks, a sort of gold coin, which some ¹ value at twenty drachms of Silver, and others3 at eleven livres, eleven pence, nine deniers, and a quarter of French Money. See hereafter DARCMONIM, which is the same with Adarconim. Herodotus4 says, that Daricks were first coin’d in the Reign of Darius, the Son of Hystaspes, who lived long after the Author of the Chronicles and Ezra; but the Scholiast of Aristophanes affirms, that they were first made current by another Darius, who lived long before Darius, the Son of Hystaspes5.
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Footnotes
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אדרכוניםAdarconim. ↩
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Translators’ note. The Adarconim of the Scripture, and Darkonoth of the Talmudists, so called from the Greek Δαρεικοὶ, Darics. A Daric was a piece of Gold of the value of one of our Jacobus’s. See Prid. Con. ↩
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M. le Pelletier of Roan. ↩
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Herodot. l. 4. c. 166. º Joseph. Antiq. l. xii. c. 17. ↩
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Translators’ note. It was Darius the Mede, who coined a great number of pieces of pure Gold called Darics, or Stateres Darici: This Darius was the first King of the Medes and Persians, who coined Gold Money. They were stamped on one side with the effigies of an Archer, who was crowned with a spiked Crown, had a Bow in his left hand, and an Arrow in his right, and was clothed with a long Robe. I have seen one of them in Gold, and another in Silver. They were of the same weight and value with the Attic Stater, or piece of Gold Money weighing two Attic Drachms. Darius seems to have learnt the art and use of Money from the conquered Kingdom of the Lydians, and to have re-coined their Gold; for the Medes, before they conquered the Lydians, had no Money. The Lydians were the first who coined Gold and Silver; and Crœsus coined Gold Monies in plenty, called Crœsei; and it was not reasonable that the Monies of the Kings of Lydia should continue current after the Overthrow of their Kingdom, and therefore Darius re- coined it with his own effigies, but without altering the current weight and value. See The Chronology of the ancient Kingdoms amended, by Sir Isaac Newton, p. 319, &c. ↩