Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1633467, member: 19463&quot;]While most of this has been covered:</p><p>What holds for one group of coins does not hold for all.&nbsp; Some issues were tightly controlled as to weight and fineness.&nbsp; Some coins were issued &#039;al marco&#039; or a certain number were issued from a pound of metal but little care was taken to make each coin the same as all of its fellows.&nbsp;&nbsp; This might mean there would be a 2.5 and 3.5g example here and there but a thousand of them originally probably weighed exactly 3 kg.&nbsp; The guys at the mint were given a certain amount of metal and expected to produce a certain number of coins.&nbsp; Details on how that was accomplished varied from place to place.&nbsp; There are some issues that really make you think there were no controls at all but perhaps we are just missing the key bit of information.&nbsp; Could, perhaps, some heavy and well made coins been produced for paying the Praetorian Guard and some lesser junk for the auxiliary archers?&nbsp; We don&#039;t know.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Should collectors pay attention to such things?&nbsp; There is nothing wrong with studying such matters but it is not as simple as buying the heaviest in every case.&nbsp; I have bought silver antoniniani that weigh twice the weight of others from the same ruler.&nbsp; This is partly because I want something to illustrate questions like the one asked here.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in