Roman Coins: Do We Know How Long Ancient Roman Coins Circulated After Minting?

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A very interesting question.

Here's an idle thought. We hear now and then of some metal detectorist finding a pot of old coins in a field, and it always ends up in the numismatic world. What if in 1700 Italy or France some farmer tilling his field were to come across a pot of ancient coins. The numismatic world is tiny and not accessible by peasants, so why wouldn't the farmer take the coins to a local village and see what he could buy with them? The merchant might say sure, why not, and take them in at one value and pass them out at whatever value he can get for them.

 

Semi on-topic - I took this picture for another thread I think on another forum to illustrate the difference between a circulated and uncirculated high relief coin


Given that the name is totally worn off, I would imagine that this circulated (possibly on and off) for something like 50-100 years, based on the typical wear on silver US coins after a similar time.

Does anyone have even more thoroughly worn coin?

 

Maybe the Zanjid atabegs of Mosul or Sinjar did even better. In the 12th and 13th c. AD they minted bronze dirhams with obverse types copied from 1400 years old tetradrachms of Side or 950 years old octassaria of Antioch... (Not my coins...)

 

Yes, the turkomen bronzes prove ancients were known to 13th century people, but it is probably most likely they were found items, not items in circulation or in a collection the entire time.

Sayles and Spengler goes over all of these connection very well.

 

Here's a copy and paste of one of my posts on this subject, from about two years ago. (I haven't checked to make sure that all the links still work.)

What looks like a very interesting article, as translated into English, entitled "Circulation of Roman Coinage in Northern Europe in Late Antiquity," can be found at at https://journals.openedition.org/histoiremesure/886. A brief excerpt:

"In North-Central Europe 2nd century denarii and subaerati are noted almost always in Late Roman and Early Migration Period contexts, i.e. be-tween A.D. 3rd and the 5th century. Most of the denarii hoards, which additionally contain non-numismatic elements, mainly ornaments, are dated to the Migration Period; many deposits from Gotland are recorded even in Late Migration Period contexts. Denarii continue to appear also in Frankish graves dated to 5th and 6th centuries and even later. Strong wear of the denarii from Barbaricum suggests that they were used over a long period.

The other very important group of Roman coinage in Barbaricum are 2nd and early 3rd century sestertii found particularly on the south-eastern Baltic — in Pomerania, Sambian peninsula and the lower Neman River, areas settled by Germanic and West Balt societies. Sestertii are registered in hoards, graves, and as stray finds. In my opinion the influx of the wave of sestertii to the Baltic coast ought to be dated to the period between A.D. 180 and the mid 3rd century, until early Valerianus and Gallienus. There is evidence that they originated from the western Empire and the latest series, dated to the mid-3rd century, may have come directly from northern Italy. The distribution, chronology and provenance of this very specific group of coinage strongly suggest its links with the amber trade which, as a result of Marcomanic Wars, had to take place by a roundabout sea route."

See also http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/87152/1/WP275.pdf at p. 7: "There is some evidence that late Roman low-denomination coins were still circulating in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as were privately produced jettons (Dyer, 1997, p. 40)." [From an paper entitled "Technologies of money in the Middle Ages:
The ‘Principles of Minting’," by Oliver Volckart of the London School of Economics.]


Finally, see the [2016] thread at forumancientcoins.com entitled "How long were Roman coin in circulation for?"; it's at http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=108861.0;wap2. One comment cites an article mentioning Roman bronzes from a hoard circulating (on a small scale) as farthings in 1741; see https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3421958&view=1up&seq=548. [The book cited is
Rev. Gilbert White, The natural history and antiquities of Selborne, London, Printed for J. and A. Arch [etc., 1837], Source: HathiTrust.org
cf. pp. 516-517.]

[Another comment, by our own @Jochen1, mentions that he had read that "Roman sestertii were used until begin of 19th century as sous pieces in France," presumably because of the similarity in size.]

Another comment, by a Forum member named Gallienus1, states:

"With the collapse of the Western Empire the new coins minted by the tribal successor states probably could not be produced in the numbers needed for trade, pay for the loyalty of warriors or even for every day exchange. It is therefore reasonable to expect that Roman coins that survived in circulation would be used until worn into featureless discs, then melted down for reuse.

Then the[re] are hoard coins. Hoards have been found from the time they were hidden to the present day. Reading an excerpt from The Social Circulation of the Past: English Historical Culture 1500-1730 by Daniel Woolf indicates to me that hoards were discovered at a much greater frequency in the past than they are today. In the 15th through to 18th centuries some of these coins must have re-entered the economy as unofficial units of exchange based on the monetary value of their metal content.

Names given for Roman coins such as 'madning money', 'Binchester pennies' and 'Burrough money' certainly suggest that the locals at least may have used them as a means of exchange. The part in the excerpt that makes me weep is the schoolmaster who gets his students to look for Roman coins and when they found enough silver ones he had them melted down to make a silver tankard!" (Citing https://books.google.com.au/books?id=5fb2qsnZozMC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=circulation+of+<a href='http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=55&pos=0' target='_blank'>roman</a>+coins&source=bl&ots=eCC8e-HzIS&sig=IGt_9KA2bw0GKhI7GE9JFVoBXPk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZzKq62IjQAhWJHJQKHUjQBtE4KBDoAQgfMAE#v=onepage&q=circulation of roman coins&f=false .)"

 

All of my "Alexander's Ragtime Band" coins are worn, some more than others.

 

Somebody say "Lira"?

 

Just as another data point, old (including ancient) coins were regularly being exchanged for current pieces by money-changers in 19th century India. I found this description (apologies in advance for the lengthy quote) in a book titled "Coin-Collecting in Northern India, by Charles J. Rodgers, Honorary Numismatist to the Government of India", published in Allahabad in 1894. From the first chapter:

"Some time ago in going through the bazar of one of our large commercial towns, I noticed a money-changer seated behind a large heap of cowries and a vast array of ordinary pice piled up in four anna piles, ready for changing into silver! Besides his cowries and his change, I noticed that he had also pyramids of other copper coins. Being naturally of an inquisitive turn of mind, I desired permission to examine the pyramid. Permission was at once granted, and I turned over every coin of the heap, which contained at least a thousand. Behind the money-changer I noticed many bags which, upon inquiry, proved to be full of the same kind of coins as were in the pyramid- coins of dynasties long since passed away, or of towns far distant from the one in which I was.... Having a fair knowledge of the vernaculars and of the characters in which they are written, I commenced sorting the coins. To my astonishment the number of kinds approached fifty... On further examining the coins I found that not only were the kings' names on them, but the dates and the names of the places of mintage. [handwritten note in margin by a previous owner of the book: "This is only on Muhammadan kings' coins, the Delhi sovereigns especially"]

"I purchased two or three coins of each kind and took them home for further study.... I found then that the pyramid of coins was a historical treasure-house, a place where the only records of many kings are to be found. I again visited the money -changer and again made purchases. [He goes on to visit other money-changers.] Hitherto, I had only purchased copper coins, my means being limited and my home expenses very heavy. It seems that, as a matter of course, I began to know the sarrafs, the gentlemen who deal in bullion and who trade in silver and gold coins now no longer current. They sit behind heaps of rupees instead of pyramids of copper coins. They, too, have their bags and their stores. In the bags are silver and gold in every possible shape- old gold and silver lace, old jewels, cakes of gold and silver, or jewels melted down, ingots of gold from the banks of England, wedge-like lumps of silver from China, boat-like lumps of the same metal from the same country, and gold and silver coins from every nation under the sun that ever had a gold and silver coinage...

"The other day, we came across some silver coins of Athens, which had been found in some sands exposed by the river Oxus. It is quite possible that these coins had been in the pockets of the soldiers of Alexander the Great on the occasion of their expedition in that direction. Some time ago we met with a coin of Nero in a Punjab bazaar. How had it come there? Had it come in trade? Did one of the disciples of Paul bring it to India?"

So, it's apparent that all sorts of coins besides the current were circulating in northern India (well, it's mostly Pakistan now) in the late 19th century, though the older ones were probably not continuous, rather they were sometimes dug up and then exchanged for whatever the finder could get from the money-changers. The book covers coins all the way back to the early punch-marked coinages, which started in India roughly the 6th century BC. It's an interesting book historically, though of course there are much better and more recent guides available to Indian coins. Hope you enjoyed this excerpt.

 

A most excellent account!