Denominations of Currency

What is the largest feasible denomination of economic exchange that could have existed, stayed in existence, and be useful for the general public/government? What would it be composed of if it were to be valued solely on the value of the precious metals which it was made of?
 
There is really no reason other than tradition to have the denominations stay in the low area, and no reason other than inflation we are used to using our highest one every time we go shopping by now. The sky is the limit, or for something that is economically useful, a sum, that will purchase objects on the order of a large ship, significant amounts of real estate, or a military unit.

Of course, historically "denomination" is not a good term. You had actual coin, accounting units, traditional designators for multiples, and even objects of comparison. Would you, for example, consider a lakh a denomination? It certainly got used like one linguistically. What about a follis or a solidus? The pound and mark, both the highest common units of account in their respective areas, did not have coins to represent them until much later, but a common coin in Britain, the guinea, exceeded the pound in value. So it tends to get complicated.

For general reference as ideas: the highest unit of account in the Carolingian system, the libra (pound), represents the value of a suit of armour or a full set of weapons of war. The Roman emperors made "medals" (something like presentation coins) weighing in at a pound of gold or more, representing something on the order of 72 solidi. The "pound of gold" also was commonly used to describe the value of expensive things, so this is probably no coincidence. A labourer in the monetised economy of late Rome might have an income of three solidid p.a. There is the story of a holy man being gifted 100 pounds of gold (about 35 kg) and throwing it back at the giver. The idea is to highlight his asceticism and physical strength, but it suggests that containers with counted coins might have played the role of our bundles of bills. (a 100-lb sack of gold would not have been very large). And of course, today we still use 100.pound-Troy gold bars in international transactions. If you want to count that as a denomination, it's probably close to as high as gets useful.
 
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