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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 2006253, member: 42773&quot;]There is no blanket answer to any of these questions. Every coin has to be examined in its economic context. </p><p><br /></p><p>For instance, the Tyrian Shekel was a highly respected coin in the Levant between 126 BC and 56 AD, owing to its high fineness (0.940 or higher). It weighed in at four Athenian drachmas, or about 14 grams.</p><p><br /></p><p>The earliest Nabataean half and quarter-shekels of Malichus I and Obodas II followed this standard closely, so in the discrete context of that period, it&#039;s easy to calculate three denominations: Shekel=14g, 1/2 Shekel=7g, 1/4 Shekel=3.5g.</p><p><br /></p><p>But as happens in every economic system, inflation encouraged the degradation of Nabataean silver, both in weight and fineness. Over time, the Nabataean 1/4 Shekel dropped in fineness to around 0.80, comparable to the Roman denarius, which made for easy international trade. But the decrease in fineness didn&#039;t stop there. It continued to drop throughout the history of the kingdom, never regaining its earlier standard. (Exactly the same thing occurred in the history of Roman silver when the fineness of the denarius began to slide with Nero&#039;s issues, until the invention of the antoninianus, which also began to slide downward after some time.)</p><p><br /></p><p>There seem to be inevitable forces that degrade the fineness of silver in any economic system, over time. Why that doesn&#039;t happen to gold is a mystery to me. When the bullion value of gold exceeds its fiat value, it merely disappears from production, rather than getting watered down.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, I&#039;ve digressed. But my point is that economic systems are never static - they are always in a state of flux. And any nuanced conversation about denominations is necessarily tied to very specific periods and circumstances. As I said, there is no blanket answer.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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