A Limes Denarius of Caracalla and Geta

Like everyone else, I've encountered many references to so-called limes denarii, but this is the first one I thought was interesting enough to buy. Before I post a photo, here's the Numiswiki entry for "Limes denarius" (quoting our own @dougsmit) for anyone not familiar with the term:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Limes denarius

"Limes denarius
These are thought to be coins minted either officially or pseudo-officially on the fringes of the empire out of necessity. Perhaps they were used to pay soldiers on the extreme frontiers of the Roman territories or maybe to bolster the economy of regions far from the normal means of monetary distribution. Whatever the reason, many of these coins exist.

According to Doug Smith 's postscript to The Vocabulary of Classical Numismatics, many Roman coins can be classified as "coins of necessity":

Of uncertain status are thousands (millions?) of surviving bronze coins of the Severan era that copy silver denarii. Some examples still bear traces of a very thin silver wash... Termed Limes (Lim-ace) or coins of the borders, these may be another example of coins of necessity. They may also be officially sanctioned issues for use in regions where political unrest made it hazardous to ship large amounts of silver. These low value issues could have served troops on the front and been redeemable for good coinage when they returned to the stable regions.

The name "Limes Denarius", although a misnomer, has been applied to these so often that it has stuck. Here again, although we know that these AE denarii are more or less faithful copies of silver prototypes, and we know that they were both struck and cast in various places - we even have numerous molds and forgers ' dies - we don 't understand the role, if any, they may have played in the official monetary system. Were they copies made by semi-Romanized folks just outside the reach of empire? - folks who had become accustomed to the use of coin but who did not have access to official supplies? Were they a form of military scrip meant to keep large quantities of precious metal from falling into enemy hands in the event of a defeat - and presumably redeemable in good coin at some future date? Were they out-and-out counterfeits? Were they particularly debased official issues? (well, the cast ones probably weren 't) Or did they fill some, as-yet unknown function? They might have done any or all of these at various times and places."

Here's mine:

Caracalla Augustus & Geta Caesar, Billon/AE Limes Denarius, cast[?], unknown mint, 199-200 AD or later. Obv. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Caracalla right, ANTONINVS AVGVSTVS / Rev. Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust of Geta right, P SEPT GETA CAES PONT. Official Prototype: RIC IV-1 Caracalla 38, RSC III Caracalla and Geta 2. 18 mm., 3.0 g.



A limes denarius it may be, but I liked the portrait of Geta on the reverse, and that's why I bought it. Especially because nice examples of the real silver denarius of this type are extremely expensive.

I asked the dealer if he was sure it wasn't simply a fourree (given the browner substance showing through to the grayish surface from underneath, on the shoulder on each side), and whether he thought it was struck or cast. This is what he said: "The thing I've noticed with Severan limes denarii, is that the metals are inconsistent. There are billon alloys, lead, tin, and also various AEs, even yellowy brassy examples. I think what we're seeing on the shoulders there is a leached spot of iron content out of the coin creating some iron oxides on the surface - by my reckoning were it a fourree it would not appear 'silver-esque' but rather silver over top of an AE core, and I would also expect there to be plating breaks showing a core, along the edge break. Overall I think most of the limes I have handled, are 'grey' but probably presented much brighter contemporarily. . . . The general consensus seems to be that limes denarii were cast, but not plated, although both fourees and limes were common to this period as you know."

Interestingly, I found two other Caracalla/Geta limes denarii on acsearch, both of which appear to me to be double die-matches to mine:






The dealer agreed with me: "I notice die matches with limes denarii, much more commonly, that's for sure, and this is another set, looks like."

The more I read about limes denarii, the more I realize that we don't know very much about them, including where, when, or for what exact purpose they were minted. Except that examples of the official silver versions were obviously used to create them, given the accuracy of the designs and legends. (I haven't looked to see if I can find a match between mine and any of the official dies.)

Please post your own examples of limes denarii, and any theories you may have about them.

 

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Here's one of Caracalla's wife, Plautilla. It looks cast to me, not struck. The interesting thing is that Cohen has a listing for this one (#11), though he typically doesn't mention other limes coins. He classifies it as a fouree or petit bronze.

 

Lovely examples!
Speaking of limes Geta's portraits:

 

Great post! I've never intentionally purchased a limes, although I see to end up with several anyways.

My opinion on their usage: since they looked relatively identical to official silver products, I suppose that they served a similar purpose to the Hawaii/North Africa silver certificates from WWII - identical overall appearance, but different enough that they could be easily identified.

If the border frontier fell to the barbs, the emperor could easily issue an edict that all limes in circulation would have to be returned to the imperial mint, by the soldier himself, for a one-to-one exchange with an official denarius. Any commerce with them would be outlawed, and they would be withdrawn from circulation. Any non-soldier with a limes would be investigated for fraud.

Here's my Geta, in a rather awful pot metal alloy:


Here's a Caracalla, with a rather interesting thin silver wash, not unlike those found on later antoniniani:


And here's a completely bronze 7Sev. I doubt this was ever plated or washed, and likely circulated as simply a bronze coin.


In every Limes I've ever seen, the artistry is high and the coins are often die matches, or close-to-die matches to official silver coins. I highly doubt that forgers would have been talented enough to engrave at this level. The possibility of stolen dies is possible, since there are often muled coins with reverses that, for example, never existed in conjunction with the obverses.
But, I can't imagine a die theft epidemic so dramatic that it would produce the number of limes coins that we see.

 

I agree with your dealer's statement. In my use of the terms, 'fourree' has a relatively high grade silver skin over a relatively silver free core. 'Limes' can be cast or struck and can have a very thin silver wash or even rely solely on a silvery metal in the alloy (silver or not). We need to remember that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to unofficial, barbarous, counterfeit or necessity coins. The regular mints may have followed some guidelines but the 'out of mainstream' coin makers did things 'their way' and did not all do things the same way.
Fourrees:


Limes:


Just downright unofficial and wild but not plated:

 

Another interesting Geta limes is this one with a hole punched for a pendant.

With the wear pattern it's tough to tell if it's an antique conteporary hole or not. Curiously, you see holed limes a lot more common than holed denarii, although seemingly less commonly than holed aurei.
Who knows why.

 

I think I have a copper denarius, but I don't understand where it came from and why it was needed.

 

Neither do we...

 

Very informative, well researched with good examples

 

Apparently this imitation of denarius also applies to these coins, which are discussed here?

 

Even though the literature seeems to be exclusively focussed on Limes Denarii, there are also Limes ASSES like this one (note the S C on the reverse), deriving from an issue of the Rome mint (RIC IV Caracalla 581; BMC 323.804; Cohen 29), which would be in red copper instead of yellow metal.



The American Numismatic Society has an official As of Plautilla from the same pair of dies (ANS 1995.11.1817):

 

All of this is quite interesting, but how can you tell the difference between a “limes coin,” a contemporary counterfeit and a modern counterfeit that has been poorly made?

 

It’s hard to distinguish between limes and early counterfeit, some consider them to be in the same realm.

as for modern fakes, I think many of the limes wouldn’t be worth the effort to fake. Although the human imagination knows no bounds

 

LIMES


RI Hadrian, AD 117-138 Æ Limes Denarius 18mm 3.5mm after AD 125 Genius stndg sacrificing altar cornucopia RIC II 173

 

Great write-up Donna. The limes mystery is an interesting one; I have nothing to add, but the "military scrip" theory makes sense to me.

As for those pesky barbarians, it is interesting to me the vast number of legitimate, silver denarii (Antonine, mostly, but lots of Severan too) being unearthed out beyond the Roman hinterlands (Hungary, Ukraine, etc. nowadays). The good silver was circulating a lot too. People knew the difference, I'm guessing.

Could it be the soldiers were getting stuck with the official base metal "scrip" while the barbarians were being paid in good silver? It'd be interesting to see if the limes are being unearthed close to the forts and lines of defense, while the good silver was going deeper into Barbaricum.

Here are a couple of mine:


Septimius Severus
Limes Denarius
(200-201 A.D.) Rome Mint?
[SEVER]VS AVG PAR[T MAX], laureate head right / [PR]OVID AVGG, Providentia standing half-left, holding wand over globe to left and sceptre.
RIC 166; RSC 586
(1.90 grams / 18 x 12 mm)

Oops. Here's a view of its non-silver guts:



Style is a bit off on this one - Alexander seems to be sporting a non-standard Severan rakish moustache and smile:

Severus Alexander
Æ Limes Denarius
(234 A.D.) Rome (?) Mint
IMP ALEXANDER PIVS AVG, laureate, draped bust right / PM TRP XIII COS III PP, Sol radiate, nude but for chlamys over left shoulder, walking left, rt. hand raised, whip in left hand.
RIC 123; Sear 7916.
(3.13 grams / 18 mm)

 

At 15mm and 1.53g this is roughly the size of a quinarius, although I don't know of official quinarii for Severus Alexander as Caesar:

 

It would be very interesting. It's not as if I've gone looking, but I've never noticed anything written on the find locations of limes denarii. It does seem to be an under-studied subject.

 

This thread made me realize I have a fouree of Severus, it is green and has silver highlights, but that's it. Now I need to photograph it.

 

When the limesfalsa (imitations of aes only, never of denarii) were first published about a century ago, they appeared to be associated with the limes but further evidence demonstrated that association to be illusory. The preferred term now for the coins originally called limesfalsa is "lightweights". Jump to the late 1990s. At that time ancient cast copies of denarii in base metal became more common in the marketplace, particularly in down market venues like eBay. Through a misunderstanding of limesfalsa, some began to market these imitations as "limes denarii". The term has since gained traction in collector and dealer circles but not so much among academics. You may find the following link (and link within the link) useful. https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/dirty-money-lingwell-gates-roman-coin-moulds/

 

Thank you. A fascinating article. (I read the good parts!) Certainly in Britannia there was no limitation to the border areas, although meeting a need to pay the military is certainly one of the theories.