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<p>[QUOTE="Bart9349, post: 749271, member: 5682"]I wrote this a few months ago at a non-coin site on the web that deals with Ancient Roman History:</p><p><br /></p><p>David Vagi, in his book <u>Coinage and History of the Roman Empire</u>, states: "It is well documented both by literary and archaeological evidence that ancient coins circulated for centuries. An excellent example is the countermarking of older, worn coins in the east by the emperor Vespasian in the early AD 70s. The majority of these denarii were at least a century old at the time they were countermarked."</p><p><br /></p><p>He adds, "The issuance of Imperial cistophori by the emperor Hadrian (117-138) is similarly convincing. Most (if not all) of the planchets used were older cistophori issued some 100 to 150 years earlier. We have no reason to doubt that these "host" coins (the coins that were overstruck) had been in circulation up until the time they were withdrawn for re-coining."</p><p><br /></p><p>A possible analogy would be the modern use of Indian Head pennies in the US or Queen Victoria pennies in Great Britain[?].</p><p><br /></p><p>I imagine that with the debasement of Roman silver coinage in the </p><p>mid-200's, hoarding became more common. (When was the last time someone found a real silver coin in circulation; e.g., a Mercury Head dime or even a pre-1964 silver quarter?) Interestingly, Vagi asserts that the gold coinage typically did not suffer the same debasement as the silver coinage, but maintained their purity, even in the late Roman Empire. Gold coins, however, did suffer a reduction in size.</p><p><br /></p><p>guy[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Bart9349, post: 749271, member: 5682"]I wrote this a few months ago at a non-coin site on the web that deals with Ancient Roman History: David Vagi, in his book [U]Coinage and History of the Roman Empire[/U], states: "It is well documented both by literary and archaeological evidence that ancient coins circulated for centuries. An excellent example is the countermarking of older, worn coins in the east by the emperor Vespasian in the early AD 70s. The majority of these denarii were at least a century old at the time they were countermarked." He adds, "The issuance of Imperial cistophori by the emperor Hadrian (117-138) is similarly convincing. Most (if not all) of the planchets used were older cistophori issued some 100 to 150 years earlier. We have no reason to doubt that these "host" coins (the coins that were overstruck) had been in circulation up until the time they were withdrawn for re-coining." A possible analogy would be the modern use of Indian Head pennies in the US or Queen Victoria pennies in Great Britain[?]. I imagine that with the debasement of Roman silver coinage in the mid-200's, hoarding became more common. (When was the last time someone found a real silver coin in circulation; e.g., a Mercury Head dime or even a pre-1964 silver quarter?) Interestingly, Vagi asserts that the gold coinage typically did not suffer the same debasement as the silver coinage, but maintained their purity, even in the late Roman Empire. Gold coins, however, did suffer a reduction in size. guy[/QUOTE]
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