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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 2821173, member: 76194&quot;]Is not &quot;10As&quot;, but rather four As coins were worth 1 sestertius coin, and 10 As coins were worth 1 Denarius coin. So just an As, &quot;10As&quot; did not exist unless you got 10 of those coins together.</p><p><br /></p><p>And yes, it is a mark of value. Check out these coins sold at auction which are perfect obverse die matches to mine.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]662412[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]662418[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As you can see, as these coins were struck by hand and were often not centered, so numismatists study many coins of the same type to understand the full design. For the first, the details of the X are not as clear, but in the last one we can clearly see the entire X on the flan (even clearer than on mine) and know it was a solitary x, which means 10, and we also have surviving Roman texts that tell us 10 As coins were 1 denarius, so we are fairly confident this is a mark of value.</p><p><br /></p><p>Quinarius, which were rarer than Denarius, frequently had a mark of value on them. They were worth half a Denarius and weigh roughly half as much as a Denarius, and they had a solitary V mark on them, which is the number 5 in Latin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is an example of one. The V is behind Roma:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]662419[/ATTACH]</p><p>AR Quinarius (Cir. 195 BC)</p><p>*Not my coin, credit for the image goes to World Coin Catalog and is shared here for educational purposes under the Fair Use Act.</p><p><br /></p><p>Below is another of my Denarius coin with a mark of value (below the chin of Philip V). The X is a little more stylized, but it is still clearly an X. You can see the difference between it and the star on the bottom of the reverse. And like I said, studying other coins from the same type helps to clarify that it is exactly that. It is seldom enough to study one coin of each type alone when dealing with hand engraved dies and coins struck individually by hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]662420[/ATTACH]</p><p>L. Phillipus</p><p>AR Denarius (115 BC)</p><p><br /></p><p>PS: others may disagree and that&#039;s ok as the field of ancient Numismatics is always advancing and we are always learning new and fascinating things (and there is plenty of room for different interpretations), but for me the most important Roman coin was the sestertius as we know state budgets were calculated in sestertius and not Denarius, and the same goes for the qualifications of wealth for holding office.</p><p><br /></p><p>After around 260 AD though everything becomes a mess as old coin types are discontinued, new coins are introduced, and values are constantly recalculated due to the massive inflation in the late Roman world. I&#039;ll leave that time period to the experts in late Roman coins, but here is one just for fun, a follis from the London Mint of Constantine II.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]662421[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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