$ ./biblical-coins
Biblical coins converter
Convert the coins of the New Testament into each other, into daily wages and into today's money based on the price of silver: what a denarius was worth, how much the poor widow gave and how much the thirty pieces of silver were.
dēnarion · silver · appears in Matthew 20:2
Equals
about one day of work
Type what a worker earns in one day to estimate the present-day value.
Silver value today
About 3.8 g of silver, at 3.8 g per denarius. Silver at $49.49 per troy ounce, price as of November 4, 2026.
In the other coins
- Lepton (small copper coin)128
- Quadrans (penny)64
- Assarion (penny)16
- Drachma (silver coin)1
- Didrachma (two-drachma tax)0.5
- Stater (shekel)0.25
- Shekel or piece of silver0.25
- Mina0.01
- Talent0.00016667
The silver value tells you how much metal there was, not what it could buy. A denarius was the pay for a day's work in the fields (Matthew 20:2), and today its silver is worth much less than a day's wage. To grasp the real weight of an amount, compare it in daily wages.
Table of coins in the Bible
Approximate value of each coin in denarii and in daily wages, with a passage where it appears.
| Coin | Metal | Denarii | Daily wages | Appears in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lepton (small copper coin) (lepton) | Copper | 1/128 | less than a day of work | Mark 12:42 |
| Quadrans (penny) (kodrantes) | Copper | 1/64 | less than a day of work | Matthew 5:26 |
| Assarion (penny) (assarion) | Copper | 1/16 | less than a day of work | Matthew 10:29 |
| Denarius (dēnarion) | Silver | 1 | about one day of work | Matthew 20:2 |
| Drachma (silver coin) (drachmē) | Silver | 1 | about one day of work | Luke 15:8 |
| Didrachma (two-drachma tax) (didrachmon) | Silver | 2 | about 2 days of work | Matthew 17:24 |
| Stater (shekel) (statēr) | Silver | 4 | about 4 days of work | Matthew 17:27 |
| Shekel or piece of silver (argyrion) | Silver | 4 | about 4 days of work | Matthew 26:15 |
| Mina (mna) | Silver weight | 100 | about 3 months of work | Luke 19:13 |
| Talent (talanton) | Silver weight | 6,000 | about 16 years of work | Matthew 25:15 |
Frequently asked questions
- How much was a denarius worth?
- It was the pay for one day's work. In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the master of the house agrees with them “for a denarius a day” (Matthew 20:2).
- What is a denarius or a drachma worth today?
- It depends on how you measure it. By its silver, a denarius had about 3.8 grams, and the converter prices it at today's rate. By what it could buy, it was a day's wage, a much larger amount. The second measure is the one that helps us understand the passages.
- How much did the poor widow give?
- “Two small copper coins, which make a penny” (Mark 12:42). The lepton was the smallest coin, 1/128 of a denarius, so her offering was worth a few minutes of work. Even so, Jesus said she had put in “everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).
- How much were the thirty pieces of silver?
- If they were silver shekels, as is usually thought, each was worth about four denarii. Thirty pieces would be 120 denarii, about four months of work. Exodus 21:32 sets thirty shekels of silver as the price of a slave.
- How much was a debt of ten thousand talents?
- A talent was worth about 6,000 denarii, so ten thousand talents were 60 million daily wages, a debt impossible to repay. The fellow servant, by contrast, owed a hundred denarii (Matthew 18:24-28).
- Why are the values approximate?
- Roman, Greek and Jewish coins circulated in Palestine at the same time, and their relative value changed with time and place. Nor is it certain which exact coin each passage names, which is why the tables in different Bibles can differ slightly.
Sources
- Bob Utley. “Special Topic: Coins in Use in Palestine in Jesus' Day,” Free Bible Commentary, Bible Lessons International. View online. The source of the values in denarii.
- Crossway. “Table of Weights and Measures,” ESV Global Study Bible. View online. Used for the denarius as a daily wage and for the talent and mina as weights.
- Museums Victoria. “Coin - Denarius, Emperor Tiberius, Ancient Roman Empire, 14-37 AD,” item 78202. View online. It weighs 3.799 g and is the basis for the grams of silver per denarius.
- The silver price comes from Gold API and the exchange rates from ExchangeRate-API. They are updated every few hours. The calculation assumes pure silver, and ancient coins had somewhat less.
- Bible references follow the English Standard Version (ESV), which renders the lepton as “small copper coin” and both the quadrans and the assarion as “penny.”