While moneyers had earlier issued coins with portraits of ancestors, Caesar's was the third Roman coinage to feature the depiction of a living individual. The imagery on coins took an important step when Julius Caesar issued coins bearing his own portrait. The most commonly used coin denominations and their relative sizes during Roman times Iconography The designs on the coinage of the Republican period displayed a "solid conservatism", usually illustrating mythical scenes or personifications of various gods and goddesses. Produced using the manner of manufacture then utilised in Greek Naples, the designs of these early coins were also heavily influenced by Greek designs.
#Roman denarius value series
Īlong with the aes signatum, the Roman state also issued a series of bronze and silver coins that emulated the styles of those produced in Greek cities. Although similar metal currency bars had been produced in Italy and northern Etruscan areas, these had been made of aes grave, an unrefined metal with a high iron content. It measured about 16 by 9 centimetres (6.3 by 3.5 in) and weighed around 1.5 to 1.6 kilograms (3.3 to 3.5 lb), being made out of a highly leaded tin bronze. One example is the large bronze bullion, the aes signatum ( Latin for signed bronze). It combined a number of uncommon elements.
The type of money introduced by Rome was unlike that found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean. Eventually, the economic conditions of the Second Punic War forced the Romans to fully adopt a coinage system. For these reasons, the Romans would have certainly known about coinage systems long before their government actually introduced them. The greatest city of the Magna Graecia region in southern Italy, and several other Italian cities, already had a long tradition of using coinage by this time and produced them in large quantities during the 4th century BC to pay for their wars against the inland Italian groups encroaching on their territory. The Romans cast their larger copper coins in clay moulds carrying distinctive markings, not because they did not know about striking, but because it was not suitable for such large masses of metal.īronze aes signatum produced by the Roman Republic after 450 BCĬoinage proper was only introduced by the republican government c. Some of the emperors who ruled only for a short time made sure that a coin bore their image Quietus, for example, ruled only part of the Roman Empire from 260 to 261 AD, and yet he issued thirteen coins bearing his image from three mints. The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with the new emperor's portrait. Roman mints were spread widely across the Empire, and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture. The origin of the word "mint" is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC near the temple of Juno Moneta. The manufacture of coins in the Roman culture, dating from about the 4th century BC, significantly influenced later development of coin minting in Europe. Roman currency names survive today in many countries via the Carolingian monetary system, such as the Arabic dinar (from the denarius coin), the British pound, and the peso (both translations of the Roman libra, a unit of weight). It served as a model for the currencies of the Muslim caliphates and the European states during the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. This trend continued into Byzantine times.ĭue to the economic power and longevity of the Roman state, Roman currency was widely used throughout western Eurasia and northern Africa from classical times into the Middle Ages. Notable examples of this followed the reforms of Diocletian. A persistent feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over the centuries. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, and composition. Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage.
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