Julius Caesar denarius

yes but in the beginning of the post he said" I believe these coins were minted for Caesar's troops by military mints in northern Italy"

 

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The official-high quality silver coins were

 

oic

 

I was saying the original issue was minted by a traveling military mint out of good silver. Yours is obviously a different story.

 

I have long had a feeling that the large number of fourrees from this period could be explained in several ways but I see no way we will ever prove anything in this regard.

#1 When you have a payroll to meet, you need to meet that payroll even though you are short on the silver to do it right. Giving soldiers coins that have a bit less intrinsic value might go over better than not giving them anything. Soldiers would spend the fourrees in town placing merchants in the position of accepting them or telling the big guy with a bigger knife that you won't sell him what he wants.

#2 When you are fighting a civil war or running for office against an opponent, what would be wrong with releasing into circulation a few thousand 'bad' coins with the other leader's picture on them? After they circulate a few weeks and start to fail (show core), what is bad about people thinking your opponent is a crook? I made up these stories. Are they wrong? We can not prove anything.