Collybus
κόλλυβος
Collybus (κόλλυβος, less correctly κόλλυβον, Poll. 9.72), the smallest copper coin at Athens, the fourth of the Chalcus. (Aristoph. Peace 1200; Eupol. ap. Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 1176; Callim. ap. Poll. l.c.). Collybus seems to have been a common name for small money, since it signified generally changing money,
the rate of exchange,
and κολλυβιστής, a money-changer.
(Cic. Ver. 3.78, 181, ad Att. 12.6; Poll. 3.84, 7.170; St. Matt. 21.12; ARGENTARII p. 179 b; Hussey, Ancient Weights and Money, p. 115; Hultsch, Metrologie, p. 166.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.