Denarius of Spanish Legions

[Bud Stewart]

A recent addition to my Republican Collection is this denarius of Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus.  Seaby states in “RSC I” that this was “struck while this moneyer was acting paymaster for Pompey's troops in Spain”.

This has me wondering if the denarii minted in provinces with the Legions passed current, or only at a discount, in “Rome Proper”?

[Bud Stewart]

Are the “banker’s marks” on this denarius an indication that a test of weight and/or purity was performed on the coin?  It is interesting that the only other coin in my small collection that has similar “banker’s marks” is a “Legionary Denarius” of Antony.  The coin of Antony is obviously debased silver, but is purportedly was used in Roman commerce.

I suspect that the coins were accepted in general commerce in Rome, but again, perhaps at a “discount”?  

[Bud Stewart]

I believe that this is a fundamental question as to the nature of coins in commerce in the Roman Republic.  Were the coins taken at “face value” or were they valued by their intrinsic worth?  Also, with constant new designs entering circulation virtually every year, how did the consumer & merchant cope with what seems like a very confusing situation?

[Andrew McCabe]

I believe that this is a fundamental question as to the nature of coins in commerce in the Roman Republic.  Were the coins taken at “face value” or were they valued by their intrinsic worth?  Also, with constant new designs entering circulation virtually every year, how did the consumer & merchant cope with what seems like a very confusing situation?

Face value.

This is very well proven
(a) by thousands of documents that mention prices in denarii and asses. It's clear from the context of shopping lists and letters that an as was an as and a denarius was a denarius.
(b) purse hoards or shop tills that show small change of all eras circulating side by side in a context that presumes a large triens and a small triens were exactly the same (or else they would have been sorted). For example the tills in Pompeii mix heavy and light coins together without distinction, and the prices are advertised in asses and their fractions. This only makes sense if everything was accepted at face value.
(c) savings hoards which show the heavy and light coins mixed without distinction. There are occasional savings hoards where the hoarder endeavoured to choose heavier or unworn coins but that's an exception and is anyway no different to how one would choose the crisper bank notes to put in a savings box today.

This is a 100% established fact for all of the Roman Republic. It is not debated or disputed at. One of the drivers for this was that the standard for the denarius remained absolutely unchanged from the second Punic war to Nero - over 250 years. So despite the legionaries being a tiny bit light they entered circulation in an era when a denarius was just a denarius.

But probably a more important driver was the willingness of the government tax collectors to accept the same coin in tax payments or for buying the corn-dole. If they were accepted at face value then there was really no point in sorting out the heavy from the light.

During the Imperatorial era, as the empire was split up for nearly two decades, the relationship between prices and coins in the provinces seem to have shifted, witness for example the halving of asses in Gaul, the tiny size of the Fleet coinage etc. But not, so far as I am aware in Rome. After the bronze recoinage of 19 BC onwards and the old bronzes were removed in time, the new ones would have circulated at their new face values. And a denarius remained a denarius as ever.

[Bud Stewart]

Thanks very much Andrew.  Does the presence of what some call “banker’s marks” indicate that some coins were ‘tested’ perhaps by ‘foreign merchants’?

[Andrew McCabe]

Thanks very much Andrew.  Does the presence of what some call “banker’s marks” indicate that some coins were ‘tested’ perhaps by ‘foreign merchants’?

Just tested to see if they were plated or not! That's all. Nothing to do with weight or fineness. This was done by Roman Numularii in the Roman marketplace on the request of Romans wanting to assure their money - which could then be bagged up and sealed. 100% Roman activity. Nothing foreign about that at all. Read about testing for plated coins here (a few paragraphs down; the activities of numularii are described and their bag seals shown)

http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/Plated.html#Plated

[Bud Stewart]

Great stuff Andrew, thanks so much.  I so much appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge.  

[otlichnik]

Andrew,

Thanks for putting the evidence for the fiduciary valuation of the Republican denarius so succintly.

What though about these legionary denarii during the Empire? 

It is my understanding, supported by my own anectodal collecting and browsing experience, that these are found in Imperial era contexts - often in a very worn state - in numbers far exceeding all other denarii from the Republic era through the 1st century AD or so. 

Why is this the case?  Is it just that they were so common, or is it, as some authors have claimed, that the higher fineness denarii were weeded out of circulation as the fineness of the Imperial denarius fell while these legionary denarii remained in circulation due to their lower fineness??

I would be interested in your views.

Shawn

[Andrew McCabe]

Andrew,

Thanks for putting the evidence for the fiduciary valuation of the Republican denarius so succintly.

What though about these legionary denarii during the Empire? 

It is my understanding, supported by my own anectodal collecting and browsing experience, that these are found in Imperial era contexts - often in a very worn state - in numbers far exceeding all other denarii from the Republic era through the 1st century AD or so. 

Why is this the case?  Is it just that they were so common, or is it, as some authors have claimed, that the higher fineness denarii were weeded out of circulation as the fineness of the Imperial denarius fell while these legionary denarii remained in circulation due to their lower fineness??

I would be interested in your views.

Shawn

My understanding was that the legionaries were not withdrawn in Nero's recoinage thus explaining their more common appearance in hoards later than earlier. I understand this was a single "event" i.e. Republican denarii were withdrawn en-masse during the reform of Nero. I'm not aware of the "event" being repeated, but of course in the late 2nd century BC Gresham's law would have kicked in.

Any views from Imperial experts? I think Curtis could answer this better as it is really about hoard behaviour in Imperial times.

[PeterD]

Mark Antony denarii are indeed usually very worn. They occur frequently in British hoards, stretching down several centuries.

One of the latest of such hoards is the Shapwick, Somerset, hoard. This consisted of 9258 coins of which 260 were MAs. The termination date is 224 AD and most in-between emperors are represented.

By contrast, Republican denarii tend to peter out by the reign of Hadrian.

I tend to be sceptical in applying Gresham's so-called law. I also think that 'hoarding' is misunderstood. Most British hoards of the period of silver coinage have examples stretching over long periods, so would seem to exclude the possibility that they were accumalated just for the 'good' coins. Henry Dunning Macleod*, who described Gresham's Law, likened the process of hoarding to a man who has one nice crisp banknote and one dirty crumpled one. He tends to spend the dirty one and hold on to the clean one. But the clean one eventually gets spent.

So I think that the MA denarii were simply the 'dirty banknotes' and consequently spent most their time in active circulation. They were originally issued in vast amounts. Because of their low quality they were immune from melting down by the treasury. (was it Trajan who recalled and melted some of the coinage?)

*Henry Dunning Macleod, “The Elements of Political Economy” is available on Google Books and also in print. It's worth looking at chapter VI.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's interesting that so many should turn up here, when we're so far away form the eastern regions MA ruled!