I got the kind of Augustus denarius I always wanted :)

Very interesting. Do you have the citation or a link for the article?

 

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I do! It’s a very interesting article about the debasement of the denarius. They did testing by buying well circulated coins from different Emperors and testing the silver content.

One of the coins (which they bought from “respectable coin dealers”) ended up being a fake! An ancient forgery of an Augustus denarius.

Note the article was written by:
Alan W Pense, Provost and Vice President of Lehigh University in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.


As a source I tend to consider reputable universities as reliable sources.
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.511.7855&rep=rep1&type=pdf

 

Thank you.

 

You’re welcome

Something interesting I noticed is that if officers made 10,000 denarii per year they could actually live a relatively luxurious life. Even centurions would’ve been living pretty high class.

Yet if a lowly Legionary brought home 20 denarii every 4 months that would leave him with 5 denarii to spend per month assuming no savings.

Or roughly 1 sestertius per day. Perhaps just enough for a trip to the bath (1/4 as) and a meal at the thermopoliun (1 as 1 semis).