ROMAN CURRENCY OF THE PRINCIPATE

[HELEN S]

 i am putting up this link which i have just found and added to my favourites as i find it very interesting i hope you enjoy reading it too


http://www.tulane.edu/~august/handouts/601cprin.htm
 

[shaun m]

wonderful information :-) will make good reading, thanks

[stlnats]

Nice summary, thanks!

The debasement/purity info is very interesting.  Do you have links to the sources of information? 

 

[PeterD]

This is one page of the course notes for students at Tulane University, written by Prof Kenneth Harl.

See http://www.tulane.edu/~august/  Click in the items on the lefthand side for more interesting notes and maps etc.

Prof Harl wrote "Coinage in the Roman Economy 300 BC to AD 700" which is worth getting if you are interested.

You should take some things with a pinch of salt, though. The silver purity figures, for example, look very exact, where as in fact they were quite variable in any period of time.

[stlnats]

Thanks for the quick ping back Peter.  Much appreciated.  

I do have the Harl book and several others on the topic.  The economics and use of currency of various eras is a long time interest so try to add books to the library as I run across them.  One of the most interesting/fun of this ilk is The Big Problem of Small Change, addressing an issue few collectors think about.  What fun!  

The description of the reforms of Aurelian is what caught my attention and why I was interested in sources, since this is only one intrepretation and the issue remains controversial.  Still, this is a very nice summary despite the obvious and necessary caveats.

Thanks again.