Mina (unit)


The mina is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight, which was divided into 60 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency.

History

The word mina comes from the ancient Semitic root MNU/MNY 'to count', Akkadian manû, Hebrew מָנָה, Aramaic מָנָה/מְנָא, Syriac ܡܢܳܐ, Ugaritic mn. It is mentioned in the Bible, where Solomon is reported to have made 300 shields, each with of 3 "mina" of gold, or later after the Edict of Cyrus II of Persia the people are reported to have donated 5000 mina of silver for the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents and shekels had not yet been introduced. By the time of Ur-Nammu, the mina had a value of 1/60 talents as well as 60 shekels. The weight of this mina is calculated at.
Writings from Ugarit give the value of a mina as equivalent to fifty shekels. The prophet Ezekiel refers to a mina also as 60 shekels, in the Book of Ezekiel 45:12. Jesus of Nazareth tells the "parable of the minas" in Luke 19:11-27, also told with the talent unit of weight in Matthew. In Jewish usage, the maneh is equal in weight to 100 denarii.
From the Akkadian period, 2 mina was equal to 1 sila of water.
In ancient Greece, it originally equalled 70 drachmae and later was increased to 100 drachmae. The Greek word mna was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew māneh, Aramaic mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū.

The Greek mina

The Aeginetan mina weighed 623.7 g.
The Attic mina weighed 436.6 g.

Purchasing power