Ancient Money Calculator - Testament Press, LLC

Chapter 14 of The Bridge to the New Testament describes many of the different types of money used in inter-testament and New Testament times. We discuss the history of the money used by the Jews, the different denominations of ancient money, the debasement of money, conversions among the various monetary systems of the time, how money was used in the New Testament, and the appearance of ancient money. To get a copy of the book, click the "Products" tab above.

The calculator below may be used to see how the United States dollar compares to the currencies used by Jewish, Greek, and Roman civilizations. It may also be used to see how these currencies relate to each other. To use the calculator, enter a value in any field and all the other values will be automatically calculated. The four tables at the bottom of this page also give a description of the relationships among the various pieces of money. Note that there is no correlation across rows in the calculator--a lepton does not equal a hemiobol nor a uncia. However, each of these is the smallest denomination for its respective culture.

We have derived the number of US dollars based on the Roman work day. During late inter-testament and New Testament times, this was six hours, and a denarius was paid for this days' wage for an unskilled worker. Based on the United States federal minimum wage of $7.25 (the proxy we have chosen for an unskilled wage), that would be $43.50 per day (for six hours). Therefore, one Roman denarius would be $43.50 (try putting $43.50 in the US Dollars field below and see that it does equal one denarius). The minimum wage value may be changed below whenever it changes at the federal level (or if you live in a community with a higher minimum wage than the federal one) to see how the calculated value of dollars is affected. Note that the value of US dollars calculated should be used only as a coarse approximation of the value of these pieces of money.