Inflation during the 3rd and 4th centuries

I used to think this too, but I have more recently concluded that over the centuries the inhabitants of the Empire in this period had pretty much accepted their silver currency as nothing more than a fiat currency, at least for as long as the Roman state accepted its own coinage as some kind of payment for taxes and merchants were willing to accept it in the market place. In the US, we went from requiring that our currency be redeemable in gold to being redeemable only in silver to it being redeemable to, well , nothing, over a less than fifty year period. In Rome, for as long as a citizen could collect enough of these plated, or silver washed coins for conversion to good aurei I don't think it mattered to him how ratty the coinage now looked. From literary evidence, or rather the lack of it, the system seemed to work up until the reign of Aurelian whose better coinage (4-5% silver) may have prompted the average Roman to look at the stuff coined before his improved coinage and started folks wondering about its worth and from that observation to start dumping the junk for whatever it would fetch and convincing the business class to demand the better coinage of Aurelian. Either that or a wheelbarrow filled with the ratty stuff. For whatever reasons, before Aurelian's reforms, the populace seems to have been remarkably quiescent about the decline in their coinage, which may explain the odd phenomenon of there being not that much inflation, or little literary evidence of it till about 274 AD.

 

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Oh well I mean the Romans knew that the denarius was always “technically” a fiat currency.

The face value was always significantly above the actual silver value. From what I’ve read the denarius was valued at 10 grams of silver in terms of purchasing power yet only contained 4 when it was first minted. (Note: I may have the numbers wrong but the concept is correct in terms of face value exceeding intrinsic PM value)

Even the early debasements were pretty much ignored by the people who continued to use it as they always have.

I read about Roman debasement alot because I find it interesting. Especially since it’s a lesson that continues today.

Our currency may not be gold & silver anymore but mass printing of money is basically the modern equivalent.

That’s why I prefer disciplined money creation.

 

In some periods the debasement of coins progressed very rapidly. The crisis of the mid-3rd century is such a time.

This Postumus Antoninian is of remarkably good silver. It does not have the "dryness" or porosity of later issues and probably contains a fair amount of silver. In fact, it does look and feel like a first century denarius, even if the silver contend is lower. Btw, this coin shows a particularly attractive bust. (my coin, but not my picture)



This Postumus Antoninian of the same type contains a lot more copper. In fact, the red copper is shining through the figure of Jupiter on the reverse:

Finally, this Postumus Antoninian appears to be pure copper. It dates to the end of Postumus reign: