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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hotwheelsearl, post: 5168853, member: 75143&quot;]The legendary denarius coin was originally made of varying degrees of silver fineness, from a high of nearly 100% in the good ole days, to a low of 30%, until they finally gave up the ghost and reduced the denarius to a light bronze coin. Originally valued at 10 asses, the nominal value of the denarius degraded along with the silver content.</p><p><br /></p><p>Starting with Gordian III and by the time of Aurelian, the denarius tended to have been replaced entirely by the Antoninianus, or double denarius, which now basically took the place of the denarius.</p><p><br /></p><p>By Aurelian and after, denarii continued to be minted in very small quantities - there wasn&#039;t much point, as the buying power was so low. Sort of like how the US and UK no longer produce half cents or half pennies - they could, but why?</p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, the denarius tended to be used as a unit of account and no longer as a unit of sale; ie the term denarius became used as the word &quot;money&quot; (dinero, diner, dinar, and other various language terms for &quot;money&quot; can be traced to the old Roman denarius.</p><p><br /></p><p>Apparently the denarius lived on until the Tetrarchy, but the last reasonably commonly circulating denarii seems to have been the Aurelian bronze issue.</p><p><br /></p><p>These are not super common, but not rare, and are not very expensive. I&#039;ve been wanting one of these for ages, but never wanted to pay the $50-$75 for a good example.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thus, we come to now when I took a gamble on a random Spanish seller. My luck was true and I spent only $15 on an Aurelian denarius, which I think is a deal and a half.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1210821[/ATTACH] </p><p>Please show your last denarii![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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