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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;akeady, post: 8108989, member: 83175&quot;]I believe the victoriatus was probably worth 3/4 of a denarius, so 7.5 asses.&nbsp;&nbsp; [Edit - it&#039;s far too late here - they weighed about 3/4 of s denarius but had less silver, so they were probably worth less than 7.5 asses] Later on, the victoriatus design is used on quinarii, half a denarius, which by then was 16 asses - it may have made sense that worn, lower grade silver victoriati were passing for half the value of an unworn denarius and so replaced by new quinarius issues.</p><p><br /></p><p>Harl calls the earlier quadrigati denarii, but most writers don&#039;t refer to coins before the 4.5g denarius with Roma and the Dioscuri of ~212/211BC as denarii.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, the gold to silver ratio at around 211BC was about 8 to 1 in Rome, based on the 60 asses coins weighing around 3.3g and the denarii about 4.5g.</p><p><br /></p><p>Harl says this deliberately undervalued the gold and the gold coins were mostly melted later.</p><p><br /></p><p>Later issues changed this ratio to 12 to 1 you mention - Caesar&#039;s aurei are around 8g of gold (40 to a Roman pound) and are worth 25 denarii, which weighed around 4g of silver (84 to a Roman pound).&nbsp;&nbsp; That ratio holds for the rest of the Roman period, as far as I know!</p><p><br /></p><p>ATB,</p><p>Aidan.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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