Stater

Stater is a term used in ancient numismatics to denote a standard unit of weight and the corresponding coin minted to that standard in the Greek world and its surroundings from roughly the 7th to the 1st centuries BCE. The word derives from the Greek statêrion, meaning “standard” or “set weight.” A stater was a larger denomination, typically struck in silver, and it played a central role in facilitating larger transactions and inter-city trade within the Greek world.

The exact weight and value of a stater varied by city-state. In many regions a stater weighed about 8 to 9 grams of silver and was valued as a multiple of the drachma—commonly six drachmas in some locales, though others assigned twelve drachmas or different multiples. While each issuing polis could adopt its own design and iconography, staters shared the common function of a widely accepted standard coin that helped unify monetary systems across heterogeneous polities.

Geographically, staters were produced by numerous Greek cities and later Hellenistic kingdoms, including areas such as Macedon, Ionia, Thrace, and Magna Graecia. The coinage often bore distinctive regional imagery, including local deities, mythological scenes, animals, or symbols associated with the issuing authority. The stater's influence extended beyond a single city, contributing to a broader, interconnected monetary framework that persisted into the Hellenistic era and influenced later coinage standards.

In modern scholarship, stater refers to this class of larger silver coins and the weight standard from which they derived. The term is primarily used in historical and numismatic contexts to discuss ancient Greek coinage and its economic practices.