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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Julius Germanicus, post: 3536972, member: 80783&quot;]Your Hadrian is at the very upper end of normal variation. 99 % of all Sestertii struck in the first two centuries weigh between 18 and 30 grams (there was a tendency to using wider planchets in the first and thicker ones in the second century) with less than 10 % even reaching the nominal weight of one roman ounce, i.e. 27,3 gr (my heaviest Sestertius is a Nerva at 31,2 gr), while during the third century the weight rapidly decreased (my AD 262 Salonina is only 11,64 gr).</p><p><br /></p><p>The mass melting of Sestertii seems to have begun no later than AD 260 when the inflation reached it´s final phase due to the climax of the militaery crisis. The metal of each Sestertius could be turned into ten silvered Antoniniani with a nominal value of eight Sestertii EACH.</p><p>In anticipation of this development Sestertii were appearently being hoarded since the mid 250´s. The largest such hoard, burried in Guelma, Algeria around AD 257, however includes Sestertii of all weights (the oldest from the time of Augustus) and therefore seems to indicate that at least up to that point light and heavy specimens were still in circulation side by side.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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