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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1733860, member: 19463&quot;]I have considerable question in my mind just how many of these terms are ancient and how many were created by and for the benefit of 19th century numismatists that felt the need to sound smarter than they were.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>We have no idea what the man on the street called the coin worth any number of assarion.&nbsp; In some cases we may have a reference to the use of a word in some ancient text but that is far from proof that the term was ubiquitous as is the current nickel and dime replacing five cent coin and ten cent coin.&nbsp; Do we all even know which of those denominations is marked on the coin using the nickname and which is marked in cents?</p><p><br /></p><p>What would you like to call these coins?</p><p>[ATTACH]271543.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]271544.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p>Both are from Tomis under Gordian III.&nbsp; Both are marked 4 and a half (&lt;) assaria.&nbsp; Some of our denomination names are built from halves so we might name these &#039;nine halves assarion&#039; pieces but it could be &#039;a half short of five&#039; or &#039;four and a half&#039; just as well.&nbsp; Remember the Roman word sestertius is well documented as widely used for 1/4 a denarius but the word really means &#039;half way to the third&#039;.&nbsp; The symbol used was IIS which would strike us as 2 1/2.&nbsp; All this dates to when a denarius (ten as piece) was ten asses but the names stuck after the coin was revalued to 16 asses.&nbsp; Call it a hemikaitetrassarion if you wish but I&#039;ll stick with a 4 1/2 coin.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]271542.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>If you know you are right on the above, help me know what to call this coin.&nbsp; The raised lump in the field is clearly a result of a denomination mark having been dug out of the die to revalue the coins struck from it.&nbsp; I would love to know what was removed (D, E or the D&lt; ligature?) and what value that was assumed to leave.&nbsp; I suspect there are scholars out there who may have a handle on all this and it may well be published (probably in a language I don&#039;t read).&nbsp; I have not seen the matter addressed beyond sellers descriptions of their coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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