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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1819273, member: 19463&quot;]As I understand the matter, it is not a matter of two different denominations but a decline in the weight standards for the basic unit denomination.&nbsp; The Romans looked at the matter a bit differently than we do today but there is a US equivalent from the past.&nbsp; In the 1800&#039;s the US issued silver coins containing the face value worth of silver.&nbsp; As time progressed the weight of silver coins was changed a bit now and then and some of those changes was shown on the coins with little details like arrows added at the date or rays around the eagle. </p><p><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Seated_Liberty_Quarter_with_Arrows_and_Rays.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Seated_Liberty_Quarter_with_Arrows_and_Rays.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Seated_Liberty_Quarter_with_Arrows_and_Rays.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </a></p><p>This kept the intrinsic value of a quarter at 25 cents and made the older coins just a bit more valuable because they contained just a bit more silver.&nbsp; Constantine the Great issued coins with a certain weight and silver on average.&nbsp; Rather than weighing the coins individually they figured how many should be made from a Roman pound (96 to the pound would give smaller coins than would 84 to the pound).&nbsp; When he reduced the weight of the coins in 335 AD the design was changed so the new coins only had one standard instead of two between the soldiers.&nbsp; The coins were still the same denomination (one coin) but allowed for the fact that one coin was not worth as much as it used to be.&nbsp; This kept him from issuing nickels that contained 7 cents worth of nickel. </p><p><br /></p><p>This was not the last coin before the FTR reform.&nbsp; The next step down were the smaller coins showing two victories with wreaths between them.&nbsp; These were also valued at &#039;one coin&#039;.&nbsp; In 247 0r 248 Constans and Constantius II recognized that this was not working out and decided to start over.&nbsp; They then issued three denominations (I suspect valued at half and double of each other) marking the middle one with left facing portraits.&nbsp; The three did not contain the same amount of silver alloy but reintroduced the concept of minor coin denominations that had been dead for a century.&nbsp;&nbsp; That did not stop the runaway inflation so the two smaller denominations were cancelled and the largest coin (falling horseman) started shrinking.&nbsp; Julian II blew the whistle on this and started over with a nice big coin (the bull) and fractions (wreath) after he became Augustus but this did not work out well either and Valentinian stopped issuing the AE1 size shortly after he took over.</p><p><br /></p><p>We do not have written records that define relative values of these Roman changes.&nbsp; We would love to know if you could turn in, as a guess, twelve 2 victory coins and get a new Falling Horseman but such things were not carved in stone and whatever they wrote it on has rotted.&nbsp; What we think we know is backwards reconstructed from the coins themselves and the is plenty of room for the next generation of scholars to work on these questions.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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