Several weeks ago there was a thread posted here about saving ancients as type sets. I was very much surprised by that idea, mainly because I had never thought of collecting ancients in terms of type sets. Now, I ought to have been because I have put together any number of US coinage type sets for my teaching. For example, when covering the Jacksonian period, I showed my students the typical currency in circulation when Jackson conducted his war with the the Second Bank of the United States. The type set included a half cent, a large cent, a half dime, a dime, a quarter dollar, a half dollar and a Spanish milled silver dollar (no US silver dollar being minted then). It also included the two then being issued gold quarter and half eagles along with a blizzard of paper banknotes. I had several such type sets for the various periods of US history but never put together any type sets for my Ancient or Medieval history. Well after thinking about this gap I decided to try arrange a type set of the coins in circulation during a period of Ancient history, in this case the coins in circulation during the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Roman rulers, a period covering from ca. 60 BC to 60 AD. The set included those coins likely to have been encountered in the market place of Rome or its banking houses, those issued during that period or just before and still in circulation. I am including only one Provincial coin from the East which were not likely to be encountered in the Italian forums. In addition I try to include something of each denomination as an interesting footnote. So lets go stroll into the Roman marketplace and see what the folks have in their purses. The first coin we will see is the least valuable coin of the Julio-Claudian period, the Quadrans. In the period of the Republic the quadrans was a commonly seen and used coin. It was initially a substantial coin. According to Sear (# 1050) they could weigh some 6.5 to 13 grams but by the time Caesar was a youngster they were down to the more commonly know quadrans weight of about three grams. They don't look like much, not very impressive, rarely having an imperial portrait on them and often found and marketed today in a well worn and frequently corroded condition. Why so? The quadrans is rarely found in buried hoards. Why would people bother to save coins of such little value? Most are found as stray finds, probably dropped and never noticed being lost and not worth the trouble of finding them. Such coins when uncovered today have not been deposited in a safe location for better times (or today's collectors). As for the designs on them they frequently have something on them denoting some kind of measurement, such as the modius on my quadrans of Claudius below. Some show a hand holding a balance scale, or a cornucopia, which raises an interesting question. There are some historians and numismatists who think that by this period the quadrans had become some kind of tesserae or tokens worth more as a redemptive token for food or admissions to entertainment venues. David Vagi writes about this on pp. 90-91 of his book on Coinage and History of the Roman empire (Vol 2). Horace writes of the quadrans as the admission to the baths of Rome while Martial and Juvenal write of "sportula", little gifts of sacks of 100 quadrantes, typical of a gift from a patron to a client ( Article by Prof. William Ramsey, University of Glasgow, p. 1054). Kenneth Harl in his book on Coinage in the Roman Economy includes, on p. 17, a chart showing that 11% of the coins found in Pompeii have been quadrantes while at Minturnae, on the Liri river in Southern Italy, they account for 18% of the coins thrown into the riverbed as offerings to the river gods for a safe fording. Perhaps the quadrans was not much to look at, but well used it was. The next coin in value is the semis, or half of the As. Whether to include one in this thread was a bit of a quandary for me as this coin was always issued in Imperial times sporadically. In Republican times it was issued in large numbers and, initially as half of the As, was, again, a substantial coin but like the other bronze of the late Republic was being reduced. My second coin is of a typical late Republican semis of about 130 BC. These remained in circulation for quite some time as from about 85 BC to the imperatorials the Roman mint stopped producing copper coinage and these coins had to remain in circulation well into Julio-Claudian times. It shows Saturn on the obverse and the large letter S and the ship's prow on the reverse. Augustus issued a few of the Semis coins, his successors likewise. In the provinces the semis may have continued being minted as my third coin is sometimes labelled as a semis. It shows a head of either Augustus or Tiberius, may have been issued by the Roman Colony of Philippi and at its weight of 4.9 grams does seem to be half the As. Our next coin is the humble As, once so important it was the coin of account in the early Republic. It formed an important coin of the Julio-Claudian period. Again citing Harl, it formed 27% of the coins found at Pompeii, 67% at Minturnae, and 65% to 85% of the coins found at Military sites of the period. He also reports (p.274) that Roman soldiers complained mightily that their per diem salary of 10 of these Asses were not enough to live on. On page 276 Harl cites Duncan Jones as establishing that the average price in the city of Rome during the First Century AD for a modius ( about one peck) of wheat was 32 Asses, half that in other parts of Italy about about a third of that in Palestine. I have two Asses below, one of Tiberius and one from a Spanish mint of Gaius Caesar Caligula. Next is the double of the As, the dupondius whose outstanding feature of the Julio-Claudian period, is the use of the metal the Romans called orichalcum, which found its way into the sestertius and even some of Nero's semis coins. Originally the only way to tell an As from a Dupondius was by its color, golden yellow versus the reddish brown of the copper coinage. As time demonstrated that the orichalcum would darken, a common feature came to be to place a radiate crown on the emperor on the coin, but not on this Nero Dupondius. However if you look closely at the bottom of the reverse is the Roman number, II to indicate its value at two Asses. Next is the Sestertius of four Asses., originally in the earlier Republic a silver coin but now also in orichalcum, like this sestertius of Claudius, probably a Balkan or Gallic imitation piece, a commonly seen coin from this period. It has plenty of wear so it circulated for some time but with no counterstamp so at a light 18.4 grams I can't figure out if it circulated as a sestertius or a Dupondius. So important was the Sestertius to the Romans that it was the unit of account until replaced in that function in the late Third Century AD. The next coin is another question mark for this period, the half of the denarius, the Quinarius, even an uncommon coin of the Republic. A small issue was made late in the reign of Augustus and periodically it showed up but perhaps only as a presentation coin. I have included one here as some of those from the Republic circulated into the Julio-Claudian period. Next is the denarius, perhaps the most important coin in the Roman system of currency and so well documented that little more be said about it. Oddly enough, though, it was not the coin of account until the coin itself was becoming little more of a memory, unless the Denarius Communis of Diocletian actually was some kind of coin. Again citing Harl, the denarius comprises 48% of the coinage found in Pompeii. The first is a Denarius of Julius Caesar (from decem, ten in Latin as originally the coin was worth ten Asses but by now sixteen) . As he is pictured as "DIVUS" this was a posthumous coin issued just after he was deified. The second denarius is one of Augustus who made this denomination the cornerstone of his financial reforms and helped spread its ubiquity to the point that in several modern countries their dinar is the survival of the name of the Roman coin, along with the word for money or coin in several modern languages. Lastly we come to the most valuable coin of the Julio Claudian era, the gold Aureus (simply the Latin adjective for golden). There was a gold half Aureus, the gold Quinarius but it was so seldom issued that it may have been only a commemorative piece. An Aureus was trafficked at 25 denarii and not too many Romans would have been handling them. I have read that when Roman soldiers were mustered out that their savings could be considerable and I recall reading (sorry, I don't recall where) that all their denarii could be converted to Aurei for ease if transport to their place of retirement. I guess a handful of Aurei attracted less attention than a sack of Denarii. This Aureus of Nero is one his reduced coins as half way through his reign he reduced the weight of his gold coinage, but not the purity of almost 100% pure specie. As for its common findings at Pompeii, again using Harl's chart only has four percent being the aureus, and its findings elsewhere at military sites is negligible, less than one per cent. Well that completes my type set of Roman coins circulating in the Julio-Claudian period of Roman history. If anybody notices any errors please let us know and if members have their own contributions to this list please post them. And now for the coins themselves, from left to right. First the Quadrans of Claudius at 2.5 grams, Sear, 1863. Next a semis of the Republic, at 8.6 grams, (Sear 887) followed by a semis of a provincial mint at 4.9 grams of either Augustus or Tiberius, may be Sear 268 of his Greek Imperial Coins. Next are two Asses, the first from a Spanish mint of Caligula Sear Greek Imperial Coins 620 weighing 11.7 grams and one of Tiberius at 10.8 grams, Sear 1769. Following these two is a Dupondius of Nero in bright orichalcum, Sear 1968. A Sestertius of Claudius follows at 18.44 grams and is RIC 99, type. Next the Republic silver Quinarius with Apollo on obverse, victory and trophy on reverse, Sear 213. Following are the two denarii of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Divus Julius is 3.57 grams while the Augustus Sear 1610 is 3.6 grams . Lastly is the Aureus of Nero with a weight of 6.95 grams and issued to celebrate the Neronian Games, Sear 1927. Hope you enjoyed wading through this post.
That's a very nice, representative type set for the Julio-Claudian period. I especially like the Nero dupondius - nicely centered with full legends. Well done!
I like the idea of type set collecting for ancient coins . For Roman provincial coins this shouldn't be too difficult or expensive if you limit yourself to bronze coins. If you limit yourself to one example from each major province like; Palestine, Judaea, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia etc., you could form an interesting collection that wouldn't send a collector to the "poor house" .
Thanks for those responses. I must admit that that Nero Dupondius is one of my favorite and also oldest coins. My students loved it. Easy to see, to distinguish lettering. I have another exact same coin, actually with less wear than this one, but it is a dark green and my students could not or would not look closely at it the way they did this one. It has such a large flan I thought it might actually have been a sestertius when I purchased it at a show many decades ago, until I got it home and weighed it. As for putting together other type sets, Al is spot on with this. It offers the eclectic collector a chance to put some coherence into one's collection by grouping them to some set and he is also right about doing it on a modest budget. I am going to have to take a closer look at my provincials to see if I can make a set with rhyme and reason to them. Thanks again for the kind responses.
That's fun idea. The Quadrans's obverse in picture 1 is upside down! At some point I wanted to try this, but got way too sidetracked with LRB and provincials. Maybe I'll try a set like this for fun, although it'll be a long white before the aureus comes into play.
Great facts. I, too, have found Kenneth Harl’s book helpful, filled with great factoids and insights. I also enjoyed Harl’s lectures on GreatCourses (now Wondrium). In fact, in his course “The Fall of the Pagans and the Rise of Medieval Christianity,” he shares some of his extensive numismatic knowledge to make historical points.
I have to admit that I frequently re-read Harl from time to time, not just because he is informative but just because it is a pleasure to do so.
The dupondius demonstrates an interesting point. A few years back, more collectors would consider a stripped bare brass coin to be less desirable than one with a nice green patina but now there are many people you prefer yellow. The coin has a clear mark of denomination II on the reverse but does not have the radiate crown we have come to expect on dupondii. Compare it to my similar example below. My reverse, unfortunately, lacks the II and the yellow brass is under a decent green patina. Another reverse from this period demonstrates a triple play denomination. There is yellow metal, the II in exergue and the radiate crown. The reverse 'texture' makes it less desirable even though the coin has a bit less wear AND screams 'dupondius'. It is from the mint at Rome rather than Lugdunum. From the time of Nero through Vespasian the concepts of marking denominations were being developed so collectors today have to be aware of the considerations.
I prefer lighter tone coins than dark ones for instructional purposes. When I was teaching I would frequently pass around the room coins from various periods of history for the students to view and actually handle (never lost a one). I noticed that students would not spend any time on those coins which were dark in color, perhaps too difficult to make out anything on the coins. I actually have several coins of Nero with less wear but which are dark in tone, too dark to observe much. That light tone dupondius was my "go to" coin for Nero
