History of Dracma

Around 580–560 B.C., Greek settlers from the Phocaean city of Massalia (Marseille, France) founded the city of Emporion (Sant Martí d’Empúries, Girona) in the Gulf of Roses. These settlers were the ones who minted the first coins produced in the Iberian Peninsula about one hundred years later.

The coins of Emporion were silver pieces intended to facilitate commercial relations, both for local use and exchanges with the Iberians of the northeast.

The economic boom made the minting of the drachma inevitable starting from the mid-3rd century B.C. The Greek colony of Emporion minted drachmas showing on the obverse a female head surrounded by three dolphins. This design was inspired by one created by the artist Evainetos for the Syracuse mint at the end of the 5th century B.C., and was later copied by several Greek mints, including Emporion. On the reverse, a Pegasus was engraved alongside the Greek inscription EMPORITON.

The drachma became a reference currency for its area of influence, spreading among neighboring indigenous populations, marking the starting point for their own first coinages.