ROMAN COINS—History and Characteristics. The Italic peoples of Central Italy were a pas toral race. and their earliest medium of exchange was cattle (peens) ; the Latin words peeunia, 'money.' pee/ilium, 'property.' and peculatus, 'stealing.' are evidence of this. Bronze was the only metal that they possessed in quantity and used for implements, weapons, and ornaments; it thns furnished a convenient substitute for cattle in haunter, and in fact for some centuries after the founding of Rome, as rude,or shapeless pieces of bronze, to be weighed with each trans action, were the only 'money.' Thousands of these have been found, notably in sacred springs and in tombs, where they were thrown as votive offering: or deposited out of respect for the dead.
The real coined money of the Romans began with the .Es GRAVE, or heavy bronze, which seems to have begun about n.c. 350, though some have wished to place its origin as far back as the decemviral legislation (u.c. 430). The duodeci mal system of the ws genre was adopted from the Greeks of Southern Italy and Sicily, whose 'pound of copper,' or Nirpa, of twelve 'ounces' (oirriclai) became the Roman /flow of twelve ?mein. The 1 ibra thus became the unit of count ( as) and as such was coined, a large and bulky copper (bronze) piece, which, however, seldom exceeds ten ounces, and is generally less. The earliest us and its divisions bear no letters what ever, lint the value is marked by dots. The re verse type is always the prow of a ship. The obverse types of the denominations differ as follows: .1s, double head of Janus with 1 (unit ); minis as = 6 u Ilene ) , head of ter with 5; Diens us = 4 uncial, head of Roma with four dots; quadra ( a F cis .= 3 u cut-), head of Hercules with three dots; sc.r tans (1-6 us = 2 under), head of 1\1ercury with two dots; uncia (1-12 as), head of Roma with one dot. These remained the fixed types of Roman bronze money during the whole Republic. All these coins are cast (not struck), and are of rode fabric. There is also an enormous series of ws grarc, coined on the lloman system, but of even greater size. with the most diverse types. by the ninny Italie tribes of Central and North ern Italy.
But while the Romans at "home were con tent to use their cumbersome bronze coins, their generals operating in Campania and Apulia struck coins on (treck systems. in silver as well as copper, and far finer in technique. These bear at first the name Romano, afterwards Roma, and arc known as Romano-Campanian. coins. They were not intended for circulation in Rome. A great reorganization of Roman coinage took place in n.c. 269-268, after the successes over the Sam nites, Pyrrhus, and the Tarentines. The bronze its and all 11 f its divisions were reduced to one third of their former weight and size (so that the as now contained only as much metal as the earlier tricnsl, and at the same time multiples of the us were coined in silver; this' silver coins along with the smaller divisions in bronze ( sea- I a ns and it neM ) being struck. the others still cast . This' silver coins were the denarins 11-72 uf a pound of silver; equivalent to ten red urea asses) , q i traria s (of five (ISSe8), and Nest ert i us ( of asses) . The silver coins have all the same types: obverse, head of Roma, with winged helmet. and sign N (= ten). V (= five), 11S I = respectively; reverse, the Dioseuri loping to the right, with the name Roma. Shortly afterwards of her reverse types were int roduced. ns Victory or Diana in a chariot. There was also a very slight emission of bronze multiples of the as, the d rrn.bps (ten a ssrs) , I ri pond i u s thrvc asses), du point s (Iwo grsses). lint even now the bronze coinage, which was still the back bone of the Roman monetary system, 1e111101 gradually to diminish in weight. The its was reduced to the weight of the original quad ra ns, then to the srxturr.c: and finally, in six. 217, under the pressure of the crisis produced by the invasion of Hannibal, the 1,r .r Hamlin ia ordained a new reorganization of Roman finances. The as was reduced to the size of the original unria, and the demi rills was coined at SI to the 1 ibra of silver, in of 72. This changed the rela tion of silver and copper coins, and the equaled 16 asses instead of 10. From henceforth all coins are st ruck.