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Message:: [QUOTE="Bart9349, post: 5010398, member: 5682"]From Harl's excellent "Coinage in the Roman Economy" (pp 90-91): "In 64, Nero--under the pressures of debts incurred in a desultory war in Armenia, rebuilding Rome after the Great Fire, and his own depraved extravagance--conducted the first major debasement since the Second Punic War. Nero debased the denarius by more than 20 percent. Its weight was reduced by one-eighth, from 84 to 96 to the pound, and its fineness was lowered from 98 to 93 percent. Thus, 1 million old denarii taken in taxes could be reminted in 1.2 million debased denarii .... Furthermore, many denarii were deliberately struck below standard so that actual debasement probably ranged upward to 25 percent or more." Thank you, Limes, for your post above that helps make this further point: "Nero also abandoned, at least temporarily, the Augustan scheme of fractional coinage in two base metals by discontinuing copper asses and quadrantes in favor of ones struck from the brass alloy used for sestertii and dupondii." Good stuff.[/QUOTE]