> What made said tokens currency was not the metal, but the stamp. No, at least not always. IIRC, in Ancient Greece the money was the precious metal itself an

> What made said tokens currency was not the metal, but the stamp. No, at least not always. IIRC, in Ancient Greece the money was the precious metal itself and its value of a coin was reckoned based on its weight and purity. The stamp was just an indicator of purity. The very largest amounts of money were measured using weight units (e.g. talents). It would have been impossible for it to be otherwise, since there were so many competing coin standards (e.g. a drachma in one city could be made to a very different standard to another, with standard weights possibly varying by as much as 50% or something).