As someone interested in the topic I was reading a research paper about debasement of the Roman silver denarius and I found something very interesting: Apparently Roman denarii minted in/near Rome were higher purity silver than denarii minted further from Rome but still minted under the Empire. I found this very interesting because it means despite all the charts showing the purity of a denarius under Augustus, Nero, etc., it means it was a lot more complicated than that. It also seems very useful because coin collectors like us can know that if one of our denarius coins is of high purity for a given time period it means it likely circulated in or near Rome whereas if we have a less pure denarius for the same time period it means it likely was minted further from Rome and circulated in the provinces most likely. Anyway I thought it was interested and I hope someone else does too!
It would be interesting to know how he could keep that a secret out on campaign if the mint is essentially traveling with him. Wouldn’t it be too risky to debase the coins then and risk word getting out to the troops and having them turn on you? I’ve also always wondered exactly how did an army out on campaign mint enough coins to pay large armies? How many coins could the minters they use churn out in a day?
Well it’s important to remember Roman legionaries only got paid once every 4 months. They also had a much more simple minting process and the tools and coin minters would travel with the Army on campaign. I’m guessing they were all paid on different schedules as well to allow the minters to make more coins. Like maybe Legion A was paid January, May and September while Legion B was paid February, June and October. All just speculation though. It’s a good question.
