properties of ancient coins

[Andy Biaglow]

I am looking for references regarding the weight and range of weights for Roman denari.  I have found many references that specify a single number, say 3.2g as the weight, but no references to the statistics.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I was wondering if perhaps a museum somewhere has measured the weights of coins and reported this.  I am looking for mean plus or minus tolerance.  

I have the same question regarding specific gravity.

Andy Biaglow
Cornwall, NY

[Alex]

The theoretical weight was given by a specific ratio to the roman pound. I have these written somewhere, and i will post them when i will find them.
In the real life, the weights varied greatly if i may say so.
In the republican era, the average seems to be around 3.8
I've seen examples below 3.5, many others reach 4, and i actually have one that is 5!!!
In the first part of the I century, weight begun to decrease to an average of lets say 3.6, and in the IInd century to about 3.3-3.4
But these are very rought numbers. I do not know of any serious study on the subject. RIC or BMC catalogues should have something, but i can't say for sure since my references cover only the late period.
First have a look in the FORVM's catalogue, all the coins are weighted.  Then you should visit www.wildwinds.com  This site has thousands of coins, and some of them are weighted.
Perhaps Joe has some more info on the subject.
Please tell us if you find some extensive studies!

[Severus_Alexander]

If you are looking for weight information for a particular emperor, I would go with BMC.  I just checked BMC Vol. VI and found a complete listing of average weights including by each denomination and also a listing of weight ranges by denominations and occurences within the sample.

If you are looking for an understanding of how weights changed over time, I would look at "Coinage in the Roman World" by Andrew Burnett.

Any questions, let me know.