A drachme was a standard Greek silver coin, approximately equivalent to a Roman denarius — one day's wage for a laborer. It was a significant but not extravagant sum. The word appears only in Luke 15:8-9 in the New Testament, in the parable of the woman who searches for a lost drachma.
In Jesus' parable of the lost coin, a woman who has ten drachmas loses one and searches diligently until she finds it, then throws a party greater in value than the coin itself. The extravagant joy over recovering what was lost perfectly illustrates God's relentless pursuit of the sinner and the celebration in heaven over one repentant soul (Luke 15:10). The coin's value — a day's wage — suggests that each soul, however ordinary, is considered precious to God. No one is too lost or too insignificant to be sought.