This article is about the Greek currency. For the family of fundamental particles in physics, see Lepton.
The lepton, plural lepta (Greek: λεπτόν, λεπτά), is the name of various fractional units of currency used in the Greek-speaking world from antiquity until today. The word means "small" or "thin", and during Classical and Hellenistic times a lepton was always a small value coin, usually the smallest available denomination of another currency.[1]
In modern Greece, lepton (modern form: lepto, λεπτό) is the name of the 1⁄100denomination of all the official currencies of the Greek state: the phoenix (1827–1832), the drachma (1832–2001) and the euro (2002–current) – the name is the Greek form of "cent". Its unofficial currency sign is Λ (lambda).[1] Since the late 1870s, and until the introduction of the euro in 2001, no Greek coin had been minted with a denomination lower than 5 lepta.
20-lepton coin, Phoenician subdivision, 1831.
5-lepton coin, drachma subdivision, 1833.
10-lepton coin, drachma subdivision, 1849.
One-lepton coin of 1879, the last one-lepton coin of the drachma issued.
2-lepton coin 1869. The last two-lepton coins were minted in 1878.
An ancient mite of a type still circulating in Jesus' time, typical of what might have appeared in the Bible's lesson of the widow's mite.