Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2276648, member: 19463&quot;]The point is that the Romans expected their coins to have a proper amount of precious metal in the coin.&nbsp; To get smaller denominations for daily use, they mixed a very small amount of silver in the alloy and washed the coin with silver to remind people it was there.&nbsp; In the early Empire, this was accomplished by bronze coins.&nbsp; Solid silver coins provided a mid level denomination (or two depending on date) and gold was used for the high denominations.&nbsp; The smaller silver washed coins might be worth a small fraction of the gold coin (as little as 1/7200? - we do not have a firm set of ratios for every period) and poor people never would have touched a gold or full silver coin.&nbsp; Most surviving silvered coins have lost their silver.&nbsp; Some later issues were not silvered and contained no silver.&nbsp; There are many thousands of the silver washed coins surviving for every full silver one and many types compared to a very small variety of silver.&nbsp; Here on CT, our member Magnus Maximus is resident silver collector.&nbsp; I assume, judging from his posts, he has more of them than the rest of us combined.&nbsp; </p><p>Samples:</p><p>Silver washed AE3 (Constantine I):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]454373[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Solid silver siliqua (Constantius II)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]454377[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Gold solidus (Theodosius II)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]454378[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in