Group of Roman base metal coins for comment/identification

It is only the 288... not a variety of 288, as I can't see a branch.

The standard has an O in it... not a C.

Therefore, it is not the 272.

The 288 doesn't have an example on Wildwinds, other than the variety of it...

 

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Ah! Right - I see what you mean - I had missed that detail. I think my brain has strained enough on this one - I may return to it later in the week.

It is Sunday night over here, I have to work tomorrow (some of us still have to earn a living), and I am tired. Vale!

 

Ancient coins were made of gold, silver, copper or alloys containing a high percentage of these 3 elements. The value of a coin was the market value of the metal coins in it. Modern coins represent a promise from the issuing government rather than the actual value of the coin itself. It becomes necessary to change to cheaper metals when the metal in a coin costs more than the actual coin. For example; a 1963 quarter dollar contains about $3 worth of silver at today’s prices. A 2017 quarter contains no silver at all. If the government still minted silver quarters, it would be profitable to buy a roll of quarters and melt them into a silver ingot.

 

While it is always good to have posts from new members, I might suggest watching the dates on threads. Your post might be of more interest to the people who started the thread seven years ago or even as a new thread now since it covers material different than the original subject. When I saw this thread, I thought that I could answer that one but then discovered that several of us (myself included) had already back in 2013.

What you say about ancient coins value being linked to metal content is largely true in most cases but coins did usually carry a bit of an increase over melt and a 'suggestion' that coins of the ruler would be accepted as legal tender .... or else. We have a couple members here who have special interest in weight/alloy standards but this plays a more minor role to most of us who collect for the history/artistry/beauty of the coins.

Welcome.

 

While the thread is bumped,

@PaddyB did you ever realize that you had a rare Valentinian III / VOT PVB campgate in the bottom left?

 

Thanks @Finn235 - yes I think I did, although it is a long time since then! I believe I sold it at market not long after - I know I don't have it now. I keep picking up interesting Roman and other ancient coins - see some of my other posts on here - but I don't really collect them, so once identified I usually find them a new home. (My collecting focus is British coins - milled and hammered, including Saxon and Celtic but not Roman.)