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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 2822805, member: 75937&quot;]In ancients, this is considered a weird denomination and only used by a single city:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]663181[/ATTACH]</p><p>Gordian III, with Tranquillina. A.D. 238-244. </p><p>Roman provincial AE 4.5 assaria; 28.92 mm, 15.89 g, 7:00 </p><p>Moesia Inferior, Tomis, A.D. 241-244; Magistrate Pontianus </p><p>Obv: AVT K M ANTΩNIOC ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC // [C]ABINIA (TP)AN / KVΛΛINA, confronted laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian right and diademed, draped bust of Tranquillina left </p><p>Rev: MHTPO ΠONTOV TOMEΩC, Nemesis standing facing, head left, holding arshin (rod) and sling, wheel at feet; Δ - &lt; (denomination) in fields </p><p>Refs: AMNG I 3537; Varbanov 5701; Moushmov 2279; Cf. SNG Cop 305.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>About the denomination:</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The denomination value is marked by letter Δ together with a semis sign &lt;. Letter Δ, being the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, stands for the value of 4. The half of assarion was marked by a semis sign, &lt;, so the coin is worth 4½ assaria.</p><p><br /></p><p>The denomination assarion (plural assaria) was used for the name of bronze coins issued by several towns on the western and northern border of the Black Sea (Tomis, Callatis, Chersones, Tyras, Olbia and others). At Tomis, coins of 1 assarion, 2, 3, 4 and 5 assaria were struck, bearing as digits Α, Β, Γ, Δ and Ε. Coins with intermediate values were also issued. The coins of 4½ assaria are specific to the city of Tomis.</p><p><br /></p><p>A possible explanation for this odd denomination is that it was used for exchange fees by money-changers. This hypothesis is proposed <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/thrace2.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/thrace2.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] &#039;s page. The value of 1 denarius was, officially, 16 assaria and the coins may have been used when converting the local bronzes into silver denarii. Moneychangers typically bought and sold denarii at slightly different rates. For example, a denarius might be bought at 16 assaria and sold for 18 (or four of these 4 1/2 coins). I can’t think of a more plausible explanation, and I think Doug’s explanation is more than reasonable.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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