Roman republican

From cast bronze to the silver denarius

Rome came late to coinage compared with the Greek cities. Its earliest bronze money, aes grave (“heavy bronze”), was cast in moulds in the 3rd century BC. On the original libral standard the as was based on the Roman pound, with smaller pieces as fractions: the uncia, marked with a single pellet, was one twelfth of an as. Around 211 BC, during the Second Punic War, Rome reorganised its coinage and introduced the silver denarius, originally valued at ten asses and marked X. Struck bronze asses with the two-faced god Janus on the obverse and a ship’s prow on the reverse became the standard bronze type.

Moneyers and their designs

The coins were struck under junior magistrates who held office for one year, the tresviri monetales, and from the 2nd century BC they increasingly signed the coins with their names. Early denarii repeat the helmeted head of Roma, but the moneyers gradually began choosing motifs that celebrated Rome’s legends and their own families. The denarius of Ti. Veturius from 137 BC, with a scene of an oath being sworn over a pig, is an early example of this; later coins show anything from Apollo and Minerva in a four-horse chariot to the Villa Publica on the Campus Martius.

In the last decades of the Republic, generals and civil-war leaders took control of the coinage and put their own names, and eventually their portraits, on it. The Republic is conventionally said to end in 27 BC, when Octavian received the name Augustus; his coins continue under 27 BC – 220 AD.

What do collectors look for in Republican coins?

Republican coins are identified by the moneyer’s name and by their number in Michael Crawford’s Roman Republican Coinage (1974), which dates most issues to a specific year. Collectors value a legible moneyer’s name, a well-centred design and good silver. Some denarii have marks or holes from ancient or later use, and such features are always stated in the description. With bronze, an intact flan and an even patina count for a great deal. More coins from Rome are found among our Roman coins.