Are there any Ancient Roman silver coins larger than the denarius?

It’s personal.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

There are several RR didrachms.

 

Other than the antoninianus there are no multiple denarii from the mint of Rome except for some extremely rare silver coins which are most likely medallions. I cannot recall seeing any of these offered for sale. After the collapse of the silver coinage circa 260 AD, the denarius was replaced by a coin which we call the argenteus and that coin eventually mutated into the siliqua. There are a number of multiples of that coin and some though scarce are available.
In the east the tetradrachm survived. Starting with Augustus this denomination survived. The cistophoric standard coin survived until Septimius Severus and the tetradrachm minted in Antioch survived until Trebonianus Gallus.
Ar cistophorus of Augustus Pergamun 25-20 BC Obv. Head right bare. Rv Bundle of six stalks of grain RIC 494 RPC 2214 11.81 grms 26 mm Photo by W. Hansen

 

Well, in the East there are the tetradrachms struck by various towns and polities both in Asia Minor and the Levant. Egypt was a bit different because it was a closed coinage system, and no Roman Imperial coins were used there. If one traveled to Egypt they would have to exchange their coins through a money changer to get the local currency, and the same thing with folks leaving Egypt.

 

Plus, the silver content of the Egyptian tetradrachms was highly diluted much earlier than was the case for tetradrachms in Asia Minor and the Levant. My Claudius I tet from Alexandria is the only one I have that really looks like it's silver.

 

Considering how many tiny ancient silver cons there are and so few LARGE silver coins, ancient people must not have liked to carry around large coins in general. I have seen comments like this about the American silver dollars.

 

It's more about worth than size really. A large silver coin like a tetradrachm had a lot of purchasing power. It wasn't something that the average person would go out and spend.

 

@Gam3rBlake asked:“So then if your 11.8g coin is a tetradrachm do you know if a tetradrachm was equal in value to four denarii?”
The cistophoric tetradrachm was tariffed at three denarii.

 

Is the beard of Pupienus tooled?

 

Not from what I can see in the photo.....IMHO.
A great coin.

 

Not tooled, but there is a spot of wear on it.

 

Nothing like putting personal things on a public forum amirite

 

Well, sestertii and those sized provincials are abundant, so big coins seemed to have been well received; maybe silver coins any larger may have been too expensive, such as a $1,000 dollar bill

 

Or maybe more like a $100 bill.

Most people’s daily transactions like a coffee at Starbucks or going out to eat or some gasoline and stuff like that isn’t anywhere near $100.

I mean think about it if you go to Taco Bell a $10 bill would be more than enough to pay for a meal and a $100 bill would just be excessive. Especially if it weighed 10x more than a $10 bill.