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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3587593, member: 75937&quot;]For the reigning emperor in the Antonine period, distinguishing between aes and dupondii is easy: the emperor is laureate in the case of the former and radiate in the case of the latter. For the empresses and princes, no formal difference of this kind is made and we must rely on which metal shows through the patina or on weight (inexact, as I will demonstrate).</p><p><br /></p><p>Typically, in the Antonine period, dupondii weigh about two grams more than aes. Here is a table from the introductory material in BMCRE4:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]958129[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, there is a lot of variability and I wish the authors of BMCRE4 had listed the standard deviation and not just the mean weight in grains (converted to grams) and the number tested.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin in my collection is clearly a dupondius, for example, but it weighs only 10.62 g:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]958130[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And this one -- also clearly a dupondius -- is massive, weighing in at 16.19 g:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]958131[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s an underweight as in my collection, weighing only 9.21 g:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]958318[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Wear may play a role, too, the more worn coins weighing less. The authors of BMCRE note a study by A.S. Hemmy reporting the results not in terms of arithmetic mean, but mode (the most frequently occurring weight), along with an estimated amount (in grains) to be added to account for wear, which was based upon a study of modern coins subjected to various degrees of circulation. These results are summarized here:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]958132[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I note the weights and the correction for wear are given in grains in this table. To convert to grams, 1 g = 15.4324 grains. I wish the standard deviation had been included in the table.</p><p><br /></p><p>Going by weight CAN help distinguish between aes and dupondii, in that those weighing &lt; 10.5 g are quite likely to be aes and those weighing &gt; 12 g are quite likely to be dupondii, but in patinated specimens of intermediate weight, it can be impossible to tell which denomination it is.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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