stater2 (stater)

[L. stater, about 132.6 grains, and in value to twenty drachmæ. There were also in various states staters of Euboic and Æginetan standards. The oldest staters, those of Lydia, said to have been first coined by Cræsus, were struck in the pale gold called electrum. At the period of Greek decline the silver tetradrachm was called stater. This coin is the "piece of money" (equivalent to a Jewish shekel) of Mat. xvii. 27. As a general term for a standard of weight, the name stater was given to the Attic mina and the Sicilian litra.