I an a terrible procrastinator. I have been putting last minute touches to my display box for this weekend's Texas Numismatic Association meeting in Arlington, TX. There should be plenty of interesting stuff to see. My display is a week's pay for a Roman soldier at Veii = 15 US pounds of bronze. I had to make a run to my deposit box for that much aes rude, cast bars and bronze in other shapes. While rummaging through the box, I took of a pic of my favorite container, some cast coins. I will post a pic of the display. Here it is under construction. Large items were weighed with steelyard scales. This is about 15#. Smaller items like gold, silver, etc. were weighed with equal arm balances. You can see 5 different one # (one As) weights in the front. To the left is a Semis weight. The scales are weighing 5 VNCIA (ounces) of coins. I like this relief from Italy (Rome?) showing a butcher and scales.
SWEET, can't wait to see it!!!! Heck, enter the scales too... there was enough room last year! Couldn't you back the pickup truck into the convention center and make a separate exhibit of it? I'll be wearing my 1851O 3CS Hat pin... which nobody ever notices :-( I'll be there at least Friday and Saturday (host club recruits heavily for volunteers and since I belong to both FtWCC and NETCC I got tagged by Frank for both ANA and TNA)
I will look for you. I might wear my TIF crack-em-out shirt. My wife looks at me like ????????? really, when I wear it. PCGS liked the shirt better than NGC.
So, please explain something ... the Roman soldier was paid in lumps of Bronze to the standard weight (predates coins?). How did they do commerce, make change in smaller lumps? Also what kind of purchasing power did those three Asses per day have? Somebody posted last month that in Edwardian times (the old one, not the 1900s one), bread was one penny (although the size of the loaves varied) and chickens were two for the penny. Minds want to know...
Very cool @rrdenarius ! Looks like it will be a very cool demonstration. I thought you might find this interesting. It's an exhibit I visited at the National Museum of Rome in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. Weight system clearly shown as you described. As a native North Texan it's nice to see these kinds of numismatic activities still going strong out there... I miss Texas
My display: from front From back, oops I was not supposed to put words on the back. A good pic of a week's pay in the large pan = 3 asses per day at 327 grams per as = 15 US pounds. Note the bottom of the case was lined with copies of pages from Haberlin, Aes Grave. Double pan balances were used for smaller items like gold and silver. This one has about half a day's pay. The weights are one As and one Semis. I overloaded the scale at about 1.25 asses and the bronze ring holding the scale bent and the pans dropped. Some steelyard scale weights. The correct way to hold a double pan scale is shown on coins! Knucklebones on similar ones in Haberlin.
Very cool display! Too bad I was out of town last week...I would have came over to Arlington just to check it out.
