QUADRANTE (Latin quadrans). — The smallest Roman bronze coin, equivalent to one quarter of the as. It weighed three ounces; on the obverse it bore the effigy of Hercules and on the reverse the prow of a ship.
The term was often used to indicate a minimal sum, as “cent” is today (cf. Cicero, Pro M. Caelio, 26, 62; Quintilian, Institutiones orat., VIII, 6, 53).
In this sense it occurs in the Gospel (Mt. 5:26) in the Hellenized form κοδράντες; whereas Luke (12:59), in the parallel passage, uses the Greek term λεπτόν. Mark (12:42), who was writing for Latin readers, explains that the two “small coins” (λεπτά) of the widow’s offering were equivalent to one q. Angelo Penna