72 



Coin and Currency in [No. 9, neav series. 



an Ophir (called by the LXX and by Josephus 2d0f/), and by others 

 'Op(prjv) in Arabia Felix : but Bochart shows that this cannot be 

 the place to which Solomon sent for gold. His proofs are simple 

 and conclusive. First, it was a three years' voyage to the latter 

 place ; secondly, the ships which brought the gold brought also 

 ivory — and in Arabia there are no elephants.^ 



Another opinion is that of Huctius who believes Ophir to be 

 identical with Sophala in Eastern Africa. 



Wherever Ophir may have been, the quantity of gold and silver 

 brought to Palestine in the time of Solomon must have been 

 immense. We are told that " silver was nothing accounted of in 

 the time of Solomon ;" that " the king made silver and gold at 

 Jerusalem as stones." The yearly receipt of gold is stated at 

 666 talents (2 Chron. ix. 13,) "beside that which chapmen and 

 merchants brought." 666 talents are considerably over £3,500,000, 

 estimating gold merely at the mint price of the present day, with- 

 out reference to the fall in value which it has undergone in 2,800 

 years. 



In the later books of the Old Testament we find the words 

 adarkon and darkemon in connection with gold, and translated 

 " drams" in our version. f The words are evidently closely allied 

 to the Greek dpaxM from which, through the Latin, our " drachm" 

 or " dram" is derived. I mention them here because they form a 

 connecting link between the subject upon which I have been 

 engaged, and the few facts I have collected with reference to Per- 

 sian currency. The words are supposed to be connected with 

 hapeLKos — the " daric" — the most important gold piece in circula- 

 tion amongst the Persians. This coin is said to have been named 

 after Darius Hystaspes who, we are told by Herodotus, reformed 

 the Persian gold coinage. Estimated at the present value of 

 gold, the Daric was equal to £1-1-10, l-76f. It circulated freely 

 in Greece : and Xenophon, in the Anabasis, informs us that it 

 was the monthly pay of the heavy-armed Greek soldiers whom 



* 1 Kings x. 22 — " once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, 

 bringing gold, and silver, ivory [' elephants' teeth' in the margin], and 

 apes, and peacocks." 



t 1 Chron. xxix, 7, Ezra ii. 69, viii, 27, Neh, vii. 70. 72. 



