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Author Topic: Debasement, taxation, deficit spending—a house of cards.  (Read 851 times)

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Offline Ken W2

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So, I’m sitting in my favorite Mexican restaurant (alcohol in moderation is an elixir of thought and expression) still trying to figure out where to end my collection of RSCs in the era of the  antoninianus. I’m pretty much settling in on Gallienus when I come across this quote from Finlay: “In reviewing the various causes which contributed to the decline of the wealth and to the diminution of the population of the Roman Empire, it is necessary to take into account the depreciation of their coinage, which frequently robbed classes of the industrious citizens of a great part of their wealth, reduced the amount of property in the empire, and produced confusion in legal contracts and anarchy in prices.” My, how history does repeat itself.
I know there is no clear cut answer, but aren’t some early Gallienus issues a logical cut off for true RSCs ie at 50% silver?
Joe, thanks much for the bandwidth. Some unapologetic plugging:  there is a very nice Domitian denarius and two pretty nice Vespasian denraii listed here. If someone doesn’t beat me to them I’m buying two of the three in the morning when I get to the office.

Ken



Offline Ken W2

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Re: Debasement, taxation, deficit spending—a house of cards.
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2021, 07:21:36 am »

I read a few articles this morning (published by OSU and NGC) and think using 50% fineness as the standard for a true RSC no issues of Valerian or Gallienus would qualify. In fact, now I’m thinking, using that standard, it would be rare to find a “silver” antoninianus produced after Caracalla. So, as a general rule in the hobby, do we consider an ant made of any alloy in which silver was intentionally included to be a RSC, even though after Caracalla technically most are really billon?

Ken

Offline SC

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Re: Debasement, taxation, deficit spending—a house of cards.
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2021, 08:23:35 am »
Ken,

It is really up to you.

But from a Roman perspective, 50% was meaningless - in fact any specific percent was meaningless.

To the Romans it remained the silver currency right through the worst debasements of Gallienus and Claudius II and then the slight resurrection under Aurelian, which lasted until Diocletian's reforms.

Even then the situation is not clear cut as Diocletian's "bronze" coinage still contained silver, and used it to regulate its value, and would do so until after the death of Constantius II.  However, the fact that Diocletian also re-introduced a high purity silver coin means that one could argue that his bronze, though descended from the old silver coinage was not longer his silver coinage.

SC
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Offline Ron C2

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Re: Debasement, taxation, deficit spending—a house of cards.
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2021, 10:38:14 am »
If you collect the anyoninianii of a specific emperor, the relative silver content should not be a factor in deciding what to acquire or what you should pay. Just my opinion
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Offline Ken W2

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Re: Debasement, taxation, deficit spending—a house of cards.
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2021, 03:00:15 pm »

Hey fellows:  Thanks for your responses.

Quote
But from a Roman perspective, 50% was meaningless - in fact any specific percent was meaningless.

Well, I'm sure that at some point the fineness of silver coins, or whether there was any silver content, became nearly meaningless as the Roman economy, soldiers (importantly), and citizenry in general accepted the idea of fiat currency-- tariffed value, in part at first and then later nearly entirely, uncoupled from intrinsic value.  But I've read that many Romans knew immediately that even the Ants of Caracalla did not contain the silver of two denarii and thus adjusted pricing accordingly and hoarded denarii, particularly earlier issues.

At this point I am trying to collect RSCs of the imperial era, at least one of each emperor and empress I can find and afford. Initially, I thought ending that collection where silver content dropped below 50% made sense.  I don't think so now.  That standard is just too limiting and would exclude almost all ants issued after Caracalla, when clearly many issues thereafter are accepted in the hobby as RSCs.  The unclear distinction between a silver coin and a billon coin remains unsettling to me, but it is what it is.   

Quote
If you collect the anyoninianii of a specific emperor, the relative silver content should not be a factor in deciding what to acquire or what you should pay. Just my opinion

If I was collecting particular emperors and empresses I'd be of the same view.  However, my focus now is on RSCs (and still cleaning LRBs), so silver content does matter to some extent, e.g. I'd buy an early issue Gallienus rather than a later issue, other things being nearly equal.  The most important factors to me are: condition which of course involves many things, coupled with price; design-- I prefer designs that relate to fairly discrete events or periods- like the Germanicus issues of Gallienus and even the common Constantinople commemoratives, especially the she-wolf type; and size-- I like larger and heavier silver coins, and again, other things being nearly equal, would select a 4.6 gram ant over a 2.9 gram ant of the same type every time.   

Ken

 

       

 

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