Hi Joe. Congratulations on acquiring such a well preserved example of an
AE3 from the reign of Licinius l. The amount of
silvering remaining is truly remarkable.
What occurred to me looking at you example is how it shouts “bling”. Holding a handful of these in the bright sunshine of
the Late Empire you could be forgiven for believing that you were a lot wealthier than you really were! Which is why the modern consensus is that the
silvering would have been done to improve public moral in times of crisis.
That said, I have not seen an ancient source that states this, and as things got materially worse you would think they would continue to silver their small denominations- but within a century the practice ceased. Why?
By the time of
Zeno was it no longer possible to even pretend ordinary people were prosperous?
Great coin Joe, one that really speaks to us of its time.
Best regards,
Steve