When the Roman government collected taxes, however, it accepted solidi not as coins but only as bullion at weight--they were evidently willing to let the consumer get short weighted but not themselves.
I'm not questioning your statement, but what is your authority for it?
Does
Hendy talk about this?
I also note that in fact most solidi we see in the market seem to be fairly close to full
weight, at least up to the 10th century, so the point of these low
weight exagium pieces is not clear (to me at least).
Ross G.