I have been browsing some sites concerning ancient coins. It seems that many of these old coins were really tiny, many were smaller than a penny. Was that a trend back then or have I just been hitting the small ones? Also have there been any size trends throuhout history? Our older dollar coins seem pretty big compared to other coins.
The size of a coin was generally dictated by two things - its denomination and its metal content. The denomination determined value and for the coin to have that given value it had to contain a certain weight of the metal used to make the coin. It's just that simple.