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Assarion

Greek ἀσσάριον. Also called Assaria.

A small copper coin, about a sixteenth of a day's wage — the price of two sparrows.

Wage
about 45 minutes' work (about 45 minutes' work). Reckoned from sixteen to the denarius.
Diameter
1.6–2.2 cm (0.63–0.866 in). Reckoned from surviving provincial bronzes, which varied a good deal from mint to mint.

An assarion is small change, roughly a sixteenth of a denarius. It is in the gospels to price the cheapest thing in the market: two sparrows for an assarion, and Luke has five for two, which is the discount you get for buying the fifth one nobody wants. The point being made is not about birds. Older English versions call this a farthing — and call the quadrans one too, which is why neither is filed under that name here.

The coins of the gospels, at true size The coins the New Testament names, drawn at their true size, each with the size of surviving examples and what it bought: the lepton, the widow's mite; the quadrans; the assarion; the denarius, a day's wage; the drachma; the didrachma, the half-shekel of the temple tax; and the stater, the shekel of Tyre. A US dime, penny and quarter are drawn beside them to the same scale. a lepton1.3–1.5 cmabout 6 minutes' worka quadrans1.6–1.9 cmabout 11 minutes' workan assarion1.6–2.2 cmabout 45 minutes' worka denarius1.7–1.9 cm1 day's wagea drachma1.5–1.8 cm1 day's wagea didrachma1.9–2.1 cm2 days' wagesa stater2.6–2.8 cm4 days' wagesa dimea pennya quarterUS coins, for size:the same scale
Sizes are the range of surviving examples, and coins of one name varied from mint to mint. Bronze paid for small things and silver for wages and taxes: the widow gave two lepta (Mark 12:42), the temple tax was a didrachma (Matthew 17:24), and a stater paid it for two (17:27).

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