Greek lepton

{{Short description|Fractional units of Greek currency}}

{{about|the Greek currency|the family of fundamental particles in physics|Lepton}}

File:5 Greek leptons 1869 (1).jpg of a Greek 5 lepta coin (termed "obolos") of 1869.]]

The lepton, dual lepto, plural lepta ({{langx|el|λεπτόν}}, {{lang|el|λεπτώ}}, {{lang|el|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.[http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/currency/greek50lepta.asp Fleur de Coin - Greek 50 Lepta Coins]

The coin in the lesson of the widow's mite ({{bibleverse||Mark|12:41-44}}, {{bibleverse||Luke|21:1-4}}) is referred to as a lepton and Luke's Gospel also refers to the lepton or mite when stating that a person who does not make peace with his adversary in good time will be required to pay 'to the very last mite' before being released from prison.Luke 12:59 In the Hasmonean Kingdom the lepton was first minted under Alexander Jannaeus prior to 76 BCE.Coins of the Bible Set 2 of 3, Whitman Publishing, LLC, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7948-1889-7}}

In modern Greece, lepton (modern form: lepto, λεπτό) is the name of the {{frac|1|100}} denomination 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). 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.

File:Lepta 20.jpg|20-lepton coin, Phoenician subdivision, 1831.

File:5 lepta 1833, Greece.jpg|5-lepton coin, drachma subdivision, 1833.

File:10 lepta 1849, Greece.jpg|10-lepton coin, drachma subdivision, 1849.

File:1 lepton 1869, Greece.jpg|One-lepton coin of 1879, the last one-lepton coin of the drachma issued.

File:2 lepta 1869, Greece.jpg|2-lepton coin 1869. The last two-lepton coins were minted in 1878.

File:widowsmite.jpg|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.