The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards

by William Ridgeway

Fig. 57. Victoriatus

When and by whom a stamp was first placed on the bars, it is of course impossible to say. Tradition however seems unanimous in assigning it to the Regal period. Pliny’s account of the Roman coinage is as follows[442]: “King Servius first stamped bronze. Timaeus hands down the tradition that aforetime they employed it in a rough state at Rome. It was stamped with the impressions of animals (nota pecudum), whence it was termed pecunia. The highest rating in the reign of that king (Servius) was 120,000 asses, and accordingly this was the first class. Silver was struck A.U.C. 485 (B.C. 268) in the Consulship of Q. Ogulnius and C. Fabius, five years before the first Punic war, and it was enacted that the denarius should pass for ten pounds of bronze, the quinarius for five, and the sestertius for two and a half. Now the libral weight was reduced in the First Punic war, as the state could not stand the expenditure, and it was appointed that asses of the weight of a sextans (2 unciae) should be struck. Thus there was a gain of five-sixths, and the debt was cleared off. The type of that bronze coin was on the one side a double Janus, on the other a ship’s beak, whilst on the triens and quadrans there was a ship. The quadrans was previously termed a teruncius from tres unciae (three ounces). Afterwards under the pressure of the Hannibalic wars in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius Maximus, asses the weight of an ounce were coined, and it was enacted that the denarius should be exchanged for sixteen asses, the quinarius for eight, the sestertius for four; thus the state gained one half. Nevertheless in the soldiers’ pay the denarius was always given for ten asses. The types of the silver were bigae and quadrigae (two-horse and four-horse chariots), hence they were termed bigati and quadrigati[443]. By and by in accordance with the Papirian law half-ounce asses were struck. Livius Drusus when tribune of the Plebs alloyed the silver with an eighth part of bronze. The Victoriatus was struck in accordance with a law of Clodius, for previously this coin brought from Illyria was treated as merchandize. It was stamped with a Victory and hence its name. The gold piece was struck sixty-two years after the silver on such a standard that a scruple was worth twenty sesterces, and this on the scale of the then value of the sesterce made 900 go to the pound. Afterwards it was enacted that 1040 should be coined from gold pounds, and gradually the emperors reduced the weight, most recently Nero reduced it to 45.”

This statement of Pliny is supported in various details by several disjointed passages of Varro and Festus. Thus the former says that “the most ancient bronze which was cast was marked with an animal (pecore notatum)[444], and elsewhere he says that the ancient money has as its device either an ox, or a sheep, or a swine[445],” a statement repeated by Plutarch and other later writers. Festus (s.v. grave aes) says “aes grave was so called from its weight because ten asses, each a pound in weight, made a denarius, which was so named from the very number (i.e. deni). But in the Punic war, the Roman people being burdened with debt, made out of every as which weighed a pound (ex singulis assibus librariis) six asses, which were to have the same value as the former.” We have also a statement in the fragment of Festus (4, p. 347, Müller) that afterwards the asses in the sestertius were increased (i.e. to 4 from 2½), and that with the ancients the denarii were of ten asses, and were worth a decussis, and that the amount of bronze (in the denarius) was reckoned at XVI asses by the Lex Flaminia when the Roman people were put to straits by Hannibal[446]. Again, Festus says: “Asses of the weight of a sextans (two ounces) began to be in use from that time, when on account of the Second Punic war which was waged with Hannibal, the Senate decreed that out of the asses which were then libral (a pound in weight) should be made those of a sextans in weight, by means of which when payments began to be made, both the Roman people would be freed from debt, and private persons, to whom a debt had to be paid by the state, would not suffer much loss[447].” Varro likewise is worth hearing: “In the case of silver the term nummi is used: that is borrowed from the Sicilians. Denarii (were so named) because they were worth ten (coins) of bronze each, quinarii because they were worth five each, sestertius, because a half was added to two (for the ancient sestertius was a dupondius and a semis). The tenth part of a denarius nummus is a libella, because it was worth a libra of bronze in weight, and being made of silver was small. The sembella is half the libella, just as the semis is of the as. Teruncius is from tres unciae; as this is the fourth part of the libella so the quadrans is the fourth part of the as.”

Fig. 58. Sextans (Aes Grave). (The two globules mark the value.)

As so much difficulty and controversy surround the various questions connected with the beginnings of Roman currency, I have thought it best to give at full length the scanty data afforded by the ancient authorities. Let us now state the principal facts revealed by those extracts. (1) The Romans in the Regal epoch employed aes rude, but according to the testimony of Timaeus (an Italian Greek historian who wrote about B.C. 300), they had already before the days of the Republic stamped bronze with figures of cattle. (2) Silver was first coined five years before the beginning of the First Punic war: (3) Some time during that war the as was reduced from a pound to two ounces; (4) In the Second Punic war under like circumstances the as was reduced from two ounces to one ounce; (5) The denarius when first struck represented ten libral asses, or a decussis; (6) In the Second Punic war when the as was reduced, the denarius was ordered to pass for 16 instead of 10 asses; (7) In spite of this reduction, the denarius continued to be regarded as containing only 10 asses when employed in paying the soldiers.

Considerable numbers of asses and the parts of asses have come down to us, many of them bearing marks of value as before described. There is undoubted evidence of a constant reduction of the as. The question arises, did the reduction take place per saltum or by a gradual process? Mommsen thinks that the as continued to be of libral weight until shortly before 264 B.C. and that it was then without any intermediate steps reduced to the triens (4 ounces). Mr Soutzo on the other hand maintains with vigour that from 338 B.C., the date at which he fixes the first coinage of asses at Rome, to 264 B.C., the degradation was a gradual process, and he arraigns Mommsen on a charge of disregarding the ancient authorities, who state, as we have seen, that the change was from libral to sextantal asses. Mr Soutzo is thus compelled to state that all the asses within that period (338-264 B.C.) although they have a range from almost full libral weight to only 3 ounces were treated as libral asses. Now this of course is a very reasonable hypothesis on the principle which I have adopted that bronze money was in fact merely token currency, used only for local circulation and not for extraneous trade. But Mr Soutzo is precluded from adopting such a position unless he gives up the basis of his whole work. He has laid down that the bronze money was not a mere conventional currency, but always was actual value for the amount which it represented. On this assumption he obtains his relation of 1:120 between copper and silver. Assuming that the sextantal reduction was contemporaneous with the issue of the first denarius (which is in direct defiance of the historians), he found that the denarius of 70 grs. = 2 ounces (840 grs.) of bronze; therefore silver was to bronze as 120:1. Again, when the financial crisis took place during the Second Punic war and the denarius was reduced (as we learn from the actual coin weights) to 62 grs., and it was made to pass for 16 asses instead of 10 asses, he finds that since 62 grs. of silver = 16 asses of 432 grs. (unciae) silver was to bronze as 112:1. But in the latter case he omits to explain why it was that the denarius in paying the troops only counted for ten asses. It is evident that if the relation between copper and silver was really as 1:112, there could have been no need for making this difference. But as the soldiers were serving outside Rome, and Roman local token currency would not be taken in payment, it was necessary to pay them according to the market value of bronze. At Rome the denarius was made to pass for 16 asses, or three-fifths more than its actual value. It appears therefore that the data given us by Pliny are not sufficient to allow us to come to any definite conclusion as regards the relative value of silver and bronze at that time. Moreover there is no evidence to show that the denarius was reduced from 70 grs. to 62 grs. by the Lex Flaminia. It is on the whole more likely that this reduction took place when the first gold coinage was issued (62 years after the first silver) in 206 B.C., since there was every inducement to make such a change in the silver as would admit of a convenient relation between the gold scruple and 20 sestertii. This again raises just doubts as regards the accuracy of Mr Soutzo’s calculation. With reference to the reduction of the as to the sextantal standard we have seen that the truth of his deductions rests entirely on the assumption that the degradation took place before the First Punic war at the same time as the issue of the first silver coinage. This of course is directly contradicted by the historians. But even granting that it was correct, it is difficult to see why we should assume that the Roman as, which according to Soutzo’s own principles had been nothing more than a token, should suddenly have been treated as though it really was of the actual value which it represented. There was no reason why, even though the unit of account was the sextantal as, the as should have been anything else than a token in its relation to the silver currency: certainly it is strange that, if the Romans after treating the as as a token down to 268 B.C. then suddenly gave it its full monetary value, they did not continue to carry out their new principle. For as a matter of fact there are very great differences in the weight of the sextantal asses, and after the reduction to the uncial standard, the same process of degradation went on without ceasing, as Soutzo himself has shown[448]. All these facts point to the conclusion that the bronze coinage at Rome was only a local token currency, such as is our own silver and bronze series at the present day.

Let us now see if we can give a consistent explanation of the statements of the ancient writers which I have quoted above. Aes rude or bronze in an unstamped or unmanufactured state was originally in use at Rome, according to Timaeus. This period corresponds to that time when, as I have endeavoured to show, asses or bars of given dimensions intended to be made into articles for use or ornament passed from hand to hand, as do the brass rods mentioned above at the present moment in the Congo region of Africa. Then came the stamping of the asses towards the close of the regal period (according to Timaeus), when figures of animals were placed thereon. We have seen above ([p. 354]) that such figures are actually found on certain rough quadrilateral pieces of bronze found in some parts of central Italy. With the use of weight instead of measure for appraising their value, the shape of the asses would become modified, getting shorter and thicker. Finally, they assume the round shape of ordinary coins, and bear certain well-defined symbols on both sides, such as the Janus head and Rostrum on the as, that of Mercury on the sextans. But as few of these round asses are found to weigh more than 10 unciae, it would seem that the process of degradation had already set in before their issue. Gold and silver at the same epoch passed by weight either after the ancient fashion in ingots, or as the coined money of the Greek cities of the South or of the Etruscans. The unit of account continues to be the as of full weight. Thus all penalties due to the state would be paid not in reduced asses of only 5 or 4 ounces, but in full libral asses as weighed in the balance. On the other hand although reduced asses were used by the state in paying debts to private individuals, they were only received as tokens, and no doubt the state was bound if called upon to pay a full pound of bronze for every stamped reduced as presented to it, but in ordinary times this made no practical difference, for the bronze currency was purely local all over Italy and Sicily, as we have seen above. It was far too cumbrous to be used as a medium of international trade.

When the Romans after defeating Pyrrhus and taking Tarentum had reduced all Southern Italy and hence obtained great quantities of silver, they proceeded five years before the beginning of the First Punic war to issue silver denarii or ten as pieces. Are these pieces real representatives of the as of account, or do they rather simply represent the value of the then normal as of currency, which was probably not more than a triens or four ounces or perhaps not more than a quadrans or three ounces? The latter is the more likely hypothesis. They had been long accustomed to a bronze token currency, and it was most likely that the new silver currency would be adapted to it. It is then likely that the denarius equalled ten asses of at least 3 ounces each, in which case silver was to bronze as 180:1. In transactions inside the state the balance would be commonly, and in dealing with strangers invariably, employed in all monetary transactions, ancient states being very jealous of alien mintages. This is exemplified by Pliny’s statement that the Victoriates brought from Illyria were treated simply as merchandize. Then came the First Punic war, which lasted for two-and-twenty weary years, during which the resources of the Republic were almost drained dry. The state became virtually a bankrupt and simply paid in modern phraseology 3s. 4d. in the pound. It was effected thus: up to the present the as of full weight was the unit of account, although the coined asses had by this time come to be simply tokens of about 2 ounces each. The state accordingly enacted that the as of currency should become the unit of account, and paid the state debt by these coins, and at the same time made it legal for private individuals, who were bound under the old order of things to pay their debts in libral asses to discharge their obligations by sextantal asses. Thus Pliny is perfectly right in saying that the state made a profit of five-sixths. The influx of silver after the conquest of Southern Italy and the requirements of large quantities of bronze for the building of fleet after fleet, and for military equipment, may have very well tended to appreciate the value of bronze at this period. As the reduction in the size of the as continued, though the unit of account was two ounces, under the pressure of the Second Punic war they repeated the same process. The as was now not more than an ounce, so they decreed that the as of currency should again be the as of account, and the state thus gained a half, this time paying ten shillings in the pound.

The ounce and libra had been long well defined at Rome before the silver coinage first appeared, and whilst we saw that the sextula or one-sixth of the uncia was the lowest weight employed for bronze, the fourth part of this weight, the scriptulum, had been regularly employed in weighing silver and gold; as we have seen it owed its origin to the fact that the Aeginetan silver obol was found to be about the weight of the 24th part of an uncia or inch of bronze. The first denarii were the weight of a sextula or 4 scriptula (70 grs.) of the older weight. The scriptulum and sestertius were thus identical, and hence in later days the unit of account was the sestertius and not the as. Accordingly when the gold coinage of 206 B.C. was issued, it was based on the scruple, and consisted of pieces of 1, 2, and 3 scruples.