As some may have noted, I'm a fan of proto money... especially Roman types! It has always been of great interest how the ancients bought and sold things as money evolved And also how some may have tried to save money... Here's my Aes rude: In Italy, as with other nations, early trade used a system of barter. Aes rude(Latin: "rough bronze"), used perhaps as early as the early 8th century B.C., was the earliest metal proto-currency in central Italy. In the 5th century B.C., bronze replaced cattle as the primary measure of value in trade. Aes rude are rough lumpy bronze ingots with no marks or design, some are flat and oblong, others are square, while many are irregular and shapeless. The metal is mostly copper with roughly 5% tin. Weight varies considerably with some exceeding twelve pounds and others under an ounce. Many smaller examples are fragments of broken larger specimens. A balance was necessary to measure value for commercial transactions. weight 35.881g, length 36.1mm and an early Formatum (that I believe may have been an axe that was bent over) as example: Aes premonetale. Aesformatum, 6th-4th century BC. AE. g. 64.72 mm. 40.00. Former ArtemideKunstauktionen Now, as much as I love coins I do enjoy the occasional comic book as well. Though I'm more of a fan of the Joker, this style of proto money looks hilariously enough like the Batarang that I had been trying to add one to my collection for some time...welp, here it is: ROMAN REPUBLIC Aes Formatum. Centuries VI-IV BCE CENTRAL ITALY or LAZIO. Anv .: Element in semicircular shape on one side and serrated on the other./ Ancient Batarang Condition: Very Fine 83.41 gr 56.70 mm Former Ares Please share your Formatums, Rudes, proto dough, stuff from your heroes utility belt or anything that you catch ancient villains with (seriously this thing could knock a bad guy out if used as bronze knuckles!).
Awesome awesome awesome, @Ryro ! Love the Batarang and have looked at getting them before. Nice capture! I have the AX HEAD ITALIA Aes Formatum AE Bronze Ax Head ca 5th-4th C BCE sextans size 44.8mm 56g Sextans size? and the AES RUDE I believe mine was molten bronze dumped in water process... Italia Aes Rude - bronze ca 5th-4th Century BCE 29.7mm 32.4g Uncia sized? Proto-Money: Oscan-Latin Aes Formatum scallop shell with Ribs 4th BCE Oscan-Latin Aes Formatum shell 25mm 12.8g DOLPHINS: Thrace - Olbius AE Dolphin money CELTIC: Celtic AE Ring 800-500 BCE CHINA: China Zhou -Chou- 1000-200 BCE Dynasty Bronze cowrie - VF - Rare China Cowrie Shell Pottery China Zhou Dyn 1122-255 BC AE Chuan Bead Money 40mm China Shang Dyn 1766-1154 BC Ant Nose Ge Liu Zhu 2-6g 19-5x11 very scarce H 1-10 China Zhou Dynasty 1046-256 BCE AE Fish Money 67mm 9.5g AB Coole Enc Chinese Coins 6920ff EX: @Ken Dorney
Man O man, you have some amazing pieces of proto dough Gandy. LOVE those formatum shells but keeping getting blown out of the water when I bid on them. Very nice examples. As well, I am sorely lacking in the ancient Chinese section of my coin game and would like to start trying to wrap my head around it. Sometimes I forget what a niche of ancients proto money is. Thanks for sharing
Lol to your batarang. I have to say your batman comic gif trips me out. I don’t have any proto-money I just figured I’d drop in to say fun thread.
Roman Republic Aes Rude 463.62 grams. from the northern Etruria hoard Castelfranco dell'Emillia, near Bologna, 1898. part of a bar. c. 5th-4th century BC. aes rude, part of bar C 125G. Large bronze axe head used as barter exchange in central Italy/Latium c 6th-4th century BC. purchased from Forum.
Hi Ryro, I really enjoyed your article on the AES Formatum and am hoping that either yourself or another of the Coin Talk members can help me with my two queries. I have a nice AES Rude which came from a hoard found near the Roman Port of Ostia in 1983. It is shown it in Photo C. My first query is the item shown in Photo A. It is on its way to my collection and came from A coin/antique dealer on Cyprus and was described as an AES Formatum. Photo B shows a somewhat similar shape, but larger, which was sold by Your Antiquarian as an AES Formatum . I feel that mine is definitely an AES Formatum but am unsure of the small size – what is your opinion. My second query comes from my item on Photo D – it came from a turn of the century (20th Cent) excavation near Gubbio, Umbria and was sold by Ancient Resource, California as an AES Rude. I am wondering if, in fact, it is an AES Formatum. It is very small and, with a lot of imagination, is slightly axe shape – Which do you think it is – a Rude or a Formatum. The photos have the size and weights of each item – I am not experienced enough in this field to answer my own questions. All the best, Col
In the chaos of moving I missed this fun thread. While I can't get excited by aes rude, the Batarang is awesome .
Same here, minus the chaos of moving. That Batarang really is one of the cooler things I've seen on CT all year.
First, Thanks for the kind words. I was waiting for one of our power House experts to chime in, but as previously stated I forget how much of a niche Roman proto money is. Second, WoWiE!!! So jealous that you are able to track your proto money too it's find sites. Very cool. I am with you on your thoughts. Other than that massive rude of yours labeled C, they all look like Formatum too me. I am far from expert but had read a very well written article on these, I thought it was on Forum but cannot find it, and I believe it said Formatum can range considerably in size. Though it is interesting how light weight it is for it's size. Maybe it's Robin's weapon for fighting crime?
From what I have gathered over the years "formatus" just means formed or "with a shape/design" in Latin and is not limited to a specific size as opposed to "rude" which is just any crude hunk. I'm not sure the Romans themselves actually employed these terms. Interestingly, Roman soldiers often carried with them a wooden apparatus to "form" cheese when they would make it. The Latin word for cheese is CASEUS.They called it CASEUS FORMATUS , or formed cheese. The Romance languages got their name for cheese from this latter word meaning formed , rather than from the original Latin word for cheese CASEUS.