346 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 18 Dec 2023 \ on: What an Old Coin Collection Tells Us about Money from the Past econ
I am very interested in ancient Roman coins. It's fascinating to trace the percentage of silver in the standard denarius from the reign of Augustus to the last of the emperors. The debasement is obvious. The amount of silver in the coin was gradually reduced as the empire crumpled. I have some denari from late in the empire that don't even resemble silver. The term to describe these coins is billon.
I'm only passingly familiar with Roman debasement, but as I recall they tried all the tricks over the years: clipping, shaving, diluting.
Am I remembering correctly that Rome is where ridged coins were developed as a guard against coin shaving?
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I don't think they had the technology for ridging, but I could be wrong. It certainly was a technique used later. Clipping was done frequently in ancient Rome.
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I just did a quick check. Apparently, ridging (which is actually called reeding) was first seen in European coins in the 1500's.
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Makes sense. Most of the Roman coins have really jagged, uneven edges if you can call them edges at all.
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