• Coin
Coin
Coin
Coin

Object ID
1994.41.16.L
Object Name
Coin
Date Created
1874
Object Entities
Metevilis, Marina (is related to)
Object Description
Small, silver coin, with a man-made hole at the top. On the first side, is the profile of King George I, facing left, with the Greek inscription, "George I King of the Greeks" around the top and side perimeters. On the opposite side of the coin, there is a large engraving of a crown, with the words, "20 lepta", in Greek right below the crown. Along the top and side perimeters, there is a Greek inscription that says, "Kingdom of Greece". At the very bottom of the coin is the year 1874.
Origin
Lepton, is the name of various fractional units of currency used in the Greek-speaking world from antiquity until today. The word means "small" or "thin", and during classical and Hellenistic times a lepton was always a small value coin, usually the smallest available denomination of another currency. The coin in the lesson of the widow's mite is referred to as a lepton.
In modern Greece, Lepton is the name of the 1/100 denomination of all the official currencies of the Greek state: the phoenix (1827–1832), the drachma (1832–2001) and the euro (2002–current) – the name is the Greek form of "euro cent." Its unofficial currency sign is lambda. Until the introduction of the euro, no Greek coin had been minted with a denomination lower than 5 lepta since the late 1870s.
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Citation
Coin, 1874, National Hellenic Museum, https://collections.nationalhellenicmuseum.org/Detail/objects/9985. Accessed 04/16/24.