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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 7968457, member: 42773&quot;]It&#039;s not that black-and-white, although your point is quite true in a general sense. The denarius underwent a slow debasement toward the end of the Republican period. By the time of Augustus, it fell to 3.9g, or 1/84th of a Roman pound. Nero reduced it to 1/96th of a pound and after that the fineness also diminished consistently. By the 3rd century the weight had dropped to 3g.</p><p><br /></p><p>So the antoninianus can be seen as a natural progression of the denarius&#039; slow &quot;decline&quot; into fiat money, if you insist on viewing fiat money as something negative. But all bronze coins are fiat money, as their bullion value is only a tiny fraction of their face value, and that value has to be guaranteed by the state. In fact, the invention of fiat money by the ancient Sicilians was a huge technological advance. If we all agreed that a medium-sized lump of stamped bronze was worth some small fraction of a drachm, we wouldn&#039;t have to risk losing these Lilliputian coins...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1381880[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>MYSIA. Kyzikos.</p><p>c. 450-400 BC.</p><p>AR Tetartemorion, 0.3g, 7mm, 6h.</p><p>Obv.: Forepart of boar left, tunny fish (tuna) to right.</p><p>Rev.: Head of roaring lion left within incuse square.</p><p>Reference: SNG France 373.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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