Nero Question. Why Coinage Debasement?

I’m in getting this, they put complete planchets into this process and then struck afterwards? Seems like an awful amount of time in preparation...

also what is a load level of silver? Was it copper planchets with ingots of silver mixed in?

 

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It was about 5 percent silver, 95 percent copper. They struck up looking like nearly pure silver coins.

My friend said it was a few weeks total time, changing the water every few days, (it turned green when needing changed). Surely not much work for slaves to "create" silver, or at least not have the citizenry revolt and throw the emperor in the Tiber........

 

When you put it that way, makes sense! I keep thinking if the miserable late Roman and Byzantine coins that with no quality control and terrible strikes. That’s a different animal altogether and I was a bit temporally confused

 

Sorry, the time-frame of these were before Diocletians reforms. Probus is a very famous emperor to strike a great many of these. They are actually a bane of collectors, since these "mottled" coins, high grade but some of the silver rubbing off, are hard to look at. Full silver they are gorgeous, and even copper colored are pretty, but the mottled pieces just hard to look at for me. I hate to say it, but I wish there was a way to remove the silver off theae mottled pieces, it would be a nicer looking coin, but I never wish to disturb history like that.

 

I’ve been able to remove silvering (unintentionally...) with excessive hydroxide... usually the silver stays intact (and hydroxide can reveal it) but I’ve had a few situations when i got too aggressive and stripped the coin down to nothing.
There seems to be a point where the silver gets so thin that it can come off with a bit of effort. Usually at this point the coin is reduced to a slug, but at least it’s possible
I don’t recommend that at all, as mottled or not, it’s still cool! I don’t have any of those myself since I’d feel bad about intentionally removing the silver.