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Message:: [QUOTE="otlichnik, post: 5296310, member: 109731"]Beautiful coins Voulgaroktonou! Especially the Constantinopolis seated and those transitional issues. I have always been very puzzled by the 512 reform.  The reform of 498 makes perfect sense.  Look for example at the cost per nummus of your four specimens:  Your 8.50 g follis of 40 nummi yields 0.21 g/nummus.The 1/2 follis of 20 nummi at 3.76 g of yields 0.19 g/nummus.The deca of 1.51 g yields 0.15 g/nummus.All of these are way under the nummus standard of the time (approx 0.84 g), or in fact any 5th century nummus standard.  Thus they were a highly profitable option and analogous with the introduction early third century antoninianus - 2 denarii for the cost of 1 1/2. But then in 512 the weight of each denomination is doubled.  Thus the State's costs are doubled.  Again, just looking at your examples:Follis of 0.45 g/nummus.Half-follis of 0.45 g/nummus.Deca of 0.42 g/nummus.Penta of 0.38 g/nummus. So Anastasius doubled his cost to make coinage vis-a-vis the previous 14 years - which is actually a fairly long time in an economy.  It does still represent a good savings compared to the pre-498 standard, but still, a 100% increase in costs is hard to explain. I had the chance to raise this with Dr. Hahn some years ago but never really found a satisfactory explanation. SC[/QUOTE]