A distinctively Roman coin was the denarius, a silver coin nearly equivalent to the Greek drachm. We learn in Matthew 20 that it was a typical daily wage for a laborer, but the owner of the vineyard in this parable chose to be more generous. The denarius was also a day's pay for a Roman soldier and the coin required for the Roman tax. The Good Samaritan gave the innkeeper two of them to care for the robbery victim.

In other Biblical references the word denarius is used in terms of many such coins. Different debtors owed 50, 100, and 500 denarii. The 5000 men plus their families could not have been fed with 200 denarii worth of food. The perfume that anointed Jesus at Bethany could have been sold for over 300 denarii.

The denarius is the origin of the symbol, d, for the old British penny, to which it deteriorated as a result of inflation. On today's ancient coin market an ordinary denarius still costs about a day's pay. Denarii made for the Roman Republic (before about 44 B.C.) typically had the names of the mint master or coin designer, as in this illustration.
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