On the Chalkous of the Later Seleucids and of Agrippa II

Abstract

The question of the fundamental unit, the chalkous, of Seleucid bronze coinage has occupied
the attention of several scholars. Hoover, like Newell before him, proposed that at the time of
Antiochus IV the chalkous weighed roughly 3.0–5.5 g, but in a subsequent currency reform
under Alexander I, its weight was halved. Using as evidence the coinage of Agrippa II which,
as this author has argued, was denominated in chalkoi but at the same time directly related to
the Roman currency system, the existence of a reform by Alexander I — and certainly one that
endured — is called into question.