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Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. [1] From its introduction during the Republic, in the third century BC, through Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, and composition. A feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over ...
- “Parva Ne Pereant”
- Adventures in Greek Metrology
- Electrum Fractions
- The Littlest Romans
- The Widow’s Mite
- Collecting The Tiniest Ancient Coins
- Notes
- References
IN 2014, THE British Royal Mint issued a gold proof 50p coin only eight mm in diameter*, weighing in at 1/40 Troy ounce (0.8 grams.) This is the smallest coin the UK has ever struck and surely one of the smallest modern coins. For comparison, the smallest coin the United States Mint has ever produced–the U.S. gold dollar, struck in several designs ...
Metrology is the study of weights and measures. With relentlessly logical minds, but lacking the advantage of decimal notation, ancient Greeks created systems of weights based on simple fractions. These became the basis of their coinage denominations. Let’s start with the silver drachma of the Athenian or “Attic” standard, weighing 4.3 grams. For c...
To find the tiniest ancients we have to go even further back in time, to the electrum coinage of Lydia and the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Like most questions in classical numismatics, the dating of these coins is controversial, but circa 650 BCE is the earliest guess for unmarked types and ca. 630-620 for types stamped with designs. The weight sta...
The practical Romans had little use for impractically tiny coins. The smallest regular imperial denomination until the mid-second century CE was the copper quadrans, worth 1/16 of a silver denarius. At 15 mm diameter and about two grams, it is roughly comparable to the modern euro cent (16.25 mm, 2.27 g). In the King James Bible (1611), the English...
Any discussion of tiny ancient coins would be woefully incomplete without mentioning the Biblical “Widow’s Mite.” As told in the Gospel of Luke: And He looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow...
In 1964 the British numismatist Colin Kraay(1918-1982) wrote: “Unless there was a supply of low value coins sufficient for the needs of daily retail trade, coinage cannot have been used in anything like the way with which we are familiar today. …the great majority of ancient coins reach us through hoards, which represent deliberate accumulations of...
In The Wasps (lines 790-1), Philocleon puts fish scales into his mouth, thinking they are coins. When he goes home with his jury pay under his tongue, his daughter (lines 608-9) manages to get it away from him with a welcoming kiss! Uelpides (The Birds, 503) swallows an obol when he is startled.
Gardner, Percy. “Coinage of the Athenian Empire”, Journal of Hellenic Studies33. (1913) Hendin, David. Guide to Biblical Coins, 5th edition. New York, (2010) Kraay. Colin M. “Hoards, Small Change and the Origin of Coinage”, Journal of Hellenic Studies84. (1964) Linzalone, Joseph. Electrum and the Invention of Coinage. Dennis McMillan (2011) Weather...
- Mike Markowitz
Apr 3, 2024 · The price of these coins is around $100 in some cases, but most of them in XF qualities are between $100 to $300. In the cases of certain emperors, and rarer specimens with incredible quality; the prices can shoot up to thousands and even millions of dollars, as in the case of the aforementioned most expensive Roman coin.
Apr 19, 2018 · The first Roman coins were probably the small bronze ones of low value produced at Neapolis from 326 BCE and carried the legend PΩMAIΩN. The first silver coins were produced from the early 3rd century BCE and resembled contemporary Greek coins. These were worth two Greek drachmas and carried the legend ROMANO, later to become ROMA.
- Mark Cartwright
Roman Coin Denominations. Forget the boring piles of change in your pocket! Roman currency wasn’t just about buying bread – it was a story etched in metal. Each coin, from the humble bronze As to the gleaming gold Aureus, played a vital role in the Roman economic and social fabric. (c) Trombonist04. Quadrans (1/4 As): The smallest ...
The semis (lit. 'half of an as') was a small Roman bronze coin that was valued at half an as. During the Roman Republic, the semis was distinguished by an 'S' (indicating semis) or 6 dots (indicating a theoretical weight of 6 unciae). Some of the coins featured a bust of Saturn on the obverse, and the prow of a ship on the reverse.
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In each catalog, coins are grouped by reign and type, and sorted by denomination (from large to small). The original abbreviated Latin legends of Roman coins are, whenever possible, supplemented and translated. Coin values shown are very approximate and only apply to the coin you see in the image. Julius Caesar (49-44 BC) Augustus 27 BC - 14 AD
