Related Papers
Ancient Numismatics. no. 1
A forgotten Adventus? Notes on some coin issues of Marcus Aurelius of AD 172-174
2020 •
Valentino Piva
Considerations about some coins issued during Marcus Aurelius' reign, in light of an unpublished aureus minted in AD 174 from the Capitoline Coin Cabinet with adventus scene.
‘Appendix 1. Marks of Value on late Roman coins’ in W E Metcalf (ed.), Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage, Oxford University Press 2012
Roger Bland
Yet another view on Aurelians monetary reform
Cornelis GJ Pannekeet
CERCETARI NUMISMATICE
THE FIRST MONETARY ISSUE FOR IMPERATOR MARCUS AURELIUS
2020 •
Bogdan Beldianu
This article presents what are belived to be the first monetary issue struck for emperor Marcus Aurelius. For a long period of time the first monetary issues attributed to Marcus Aurelius as Imperator were belived to be the coins with representation of the goddess Concordia on the reverse. In fact, coins with this kind of reverse representation are related to the dual rule of the empire by Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. The first coins identified for Marcus Aurelius show on the reverse the emperor standing alone and holding the globe in his right hand. This monetary issues were, most likely, struck between the time Marcus Aurelius was confirmed as Imperator and the time Lucius Verus was himself made Emperor, a very short period of time, thus making such coins extremely rare. Five such coins were identified until now, all of the denarii, one at an auction and the other four in two private collections.
Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde
Aurelian's currency improvement and public image program
2020 •
Antony Kropff
Numismatists and historians generally agree that emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270-275) reformed the Roman currency in A.D. 274. The pivotal radiate coin, the antoninianus, is henceforth heavier, contains more silver and is produced with more care. The coins as a rule display the mark XXI or KA in the reverse exergue. A higher value for the new antoninianus, now also called the aurelianianus, is generally assumed, usually equal to two pre-274 antoniniani. However, based on an analysis of the coin itself, its circulation pattern as reflected in hoards, the scarce contemporary sources, the iconography of the coin and the public image campaign launched by Aurelian, we argue that the emperor did not reform but improve the currency, while values remained the same. Aurelian was no reformer but a true conservative at heart, trying to turn back the clock to better times – and better currency.
H. Gitler and G. Gambash. The Aureus, in Faces of Power. Roman Gold Coins from the Victor A. Adda Collection. Edited by H. Gitler and G. Gambash. Formigine (MO) 2017. Pp. 40-45.
Haim Gitler
S. Bernard, 2020. "The Imperial Victoriatus in New Inscriptions from Pompeii and London," AJN 32: 157-68.
Seth Bernard
This paper points out the consistent use of the term victoriatus to describe fractions of the denarius in two newly published inscriptions from Pompeii and London. These texts, as well as other epigraphic and literary evidence collected here, suggest that Romans of the Imperial period used the term to describe silver coins worth half a denarius. The modern convention of calling this Imperial denomination a quinarius finds little basis in the ancient evidence.
American Journal of Numismatics
Fides et Pecunia Numerata. Part II: The Currencies of the Roman Republic
Gilles Bransbourg
In the first part of Fides et Pecunia Numerata , I suggested that the full scale exploitation of the Spanish mines by Rome caused a fall in the relative value of silver as a commodity during the 2nd century BC. This explained for the most part the decrease in weight standards of the Roman bronze coinage between the end of the Second Punic War and the Social War, finally endorsed through the monetary reform of Octavian. Broad though the scope of that paper was, some major issues remained unresolved. One of these is the key question of the meaning of the X, XVI and 𐆖 marks of values that alternate for a few decades after c. 141 BC onward on Republican denarii. We will argue here that the only possible explanation fully compatible with the observed data implies some instability with respect to the conversion rate between bronze and silver coinages. This will lead to the emergence of a suggested rationale behind the monetary history of the period that separates the Gracchan episode from the Sullan restoration. Silver and bronze coinages mark a dividing line within the Roman society, separating the silver-rich upper strata from the lower classes whose wealth and income was defined by bronze. The monetary relationship between both coinages became a key battlefield within the power struggle between the two main factions fighting for the control of the Republic.
Roman Provincial Coinage Supplement 3
Roman Provincial Coinage Supplement 3
2014 •
Michel Amandry
Roman Coinage and the Triumviri Monetales from 139 BC to the Fall of the Republic
Jordon Houston
This dissertation has been written with the aim of analysing the importance of the changes that appear on the coin types of Rome beginning in the 130s BC. To do so an analysis firstly of the numismatic evidence is necessary to determine exactly what these developments are and to speculate the significance of such changes. To contextualise and emphasise these changes references will be made to earlier coinage of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the Romano-Campanian of Southern Italy in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences that these new issues of coins present. Then, it is also necessary to provide a discussion of the office responsible for the production of coinage, the Triumviri Monetales. The study of this new style of Roman coinage provides a unique opportunity to the modern historian because individual nature of these issues communicates exactly how these men wished themselves to be depicted in the public eye. By determining the roles which these minor officials fulfilled we can conclude their function within the general operation of the state and ways in which these young men treated the office itself in relation to desires such as desires for election into the Senate and to demonstrate their loyalty to particular political factions. What becomes apparent from this study is that this change in coin types, possibly caused by changes in electoral laws like the lex Gabinia of 139 BC, is that the iconography and legends chosen directly reflect the contemporary attitudes and concerns of these middling bureaucrats of the period. This is demonstrated by the changing trends in the coin types, from the representation of the family and their achievements to the development of ‘patron’ types which suggest that the men were making use of their office in order to publically promote their loyalties to those who they supported.
