The officials counted grain and goods. But how did ordinary people buy and sell? For most of its history, Egypt had a rich economy without any coins at all.
Key idea
Why it works
Worked example: A purchase in deben
- Goods paid so far: 8 + 1 + 1 = 10 deben.
- Still owed: 20 − 10 = 10 deben.
- He adds grain worth 10 deben.
Answer: 10 deben of grain. No copper changes hands at all.
Wages and rations
State workers were paid in kind. The tomb-builders of Deir el-Medina received monthly rations of grain, about 4 khar of emmer wheat and 1½ khar of barley for a workman, more for the foremen, plus fish, vegetables, oil and firewood. Emmer was made into bread and barley into beer. When rations were late, people went hungry, which is why the workmen went on strike under Ramesses III.
| Unit | What it measures | Size |
|---|---|---|
| deben | value, in weight of copper (or silver) | about 91 g (New Kingdom) |
| kite (qedet) | one tenth of a deben | about 9 g |
| khar | grain | a sack of about 77 liters |
The first coins
Coins were invented in Lydia and the Greek world in the 7th century BC. Greek coins reached Egypt in the Late Period, mostly to be weighed as silver. Egypt's own first coins came under the 30th Dynasty: small gold coins bearing the hieroglyphs nfr nbw, "good gold", probably to pay Greek soldiers. Only under the Ptolemies did coins come into everyday use.
Common mistake