Note to JULIUS CAESAR, 3.2.241, 'seventy-five drachmas'

How much was seventy-five drachmas? If we're thinking about its value in the time of the historical Julius Caesar, that's a hard question because then there were many varieties of drachma in the various Greek vassal states of the Roman empire. But if we're thinking of what Shakespeare's sixteenth-century audience was thinking, perhaps the answer is easier.

I'm guessing that Shakespeare's audience knew that drachmas were silver coins extensively used in trade. And I'm also guessing that when Shakespeare's audience heard "seventy-five drachmas" they thought "seventy-five pennies," because the penny was the most common silver coin of Shakespeare's England.

So, how much was seventy-five pennies? The short answer is that for the workmen in Shakespeare's audience, it would have seemed like quite a pretty penny. According to Walter Nelson (http://walternelson.com/dr/elizabethan-money), 2 pennies would buy a loaf of bread and 75 would buy four bottles of French wine, with about 3 pennies left over. Skilled laborers earned 8 - 12 pennies per day, so for such a man, 75 pennies would be as much as he earned in a week.



Elizbethan Penny