The last two posts were of Athenian tetradrachms - a classical issue and a later New Style issue. I was about to post a coin of Rome today, but thought I should step back and give an overview of ancient coins in general and then move onto ancient Roman coins, instead of merely posting random coins which look nice.
Coinage began in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) by the end of the 7th century BC. The first coins were of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. Croesus, king of Lydia, is believed to have been the first to mint gold and silver coins, starting a bi-metallic scheme. Initially, the coins were all minted in precious metals; later, token bronze coins were also minted. Coinage spread throughout the Mediterranean region and many of the greatest works of numismatic art come from Sicily around the end of the 5th century BC. At least three phases in the development of Greek coinage are normally distinguished - Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic - which echo developments in Greek Art.
In general, by around 400 BC, the Greek world had a silver drachma of about 4g, multiples - didrachms, tetradrachms, decadrachms and others, and fractions. There were 6 obols in a drachms and tiny obol fractions - e.g. a tetartemorion was 1/4 of an obol - it weighed around 0.17g. There were different weight standards in different cities, so some money-changing was required when travelling.
Ancient Roman Coinage
The situation in Rome and central Italy was somewhat different. Instead of coins which we would recognise today, bars of bronze were used. These were cast rather than struck and heavy - it seems that an early Roman currency bar, the Aes Signatum, was cast to a weight of 5 Roman pounds - about 1.6kg. These were issued from around 320 BC to around 255 BC. From around 300 BC, these bars were supplemented by round cast coins - initially to a 1 pound (Roman pound = 324g) standard, with fractions. It was after 300 BC when Rome's first struck coins (as opposed to cast) appeared - didrachms and token bronze coins - these actually were stuck in southern Italy, probably Neapolis (Naples), rather than Rome. One early bronze issue actually has a Greek legend.
The first Roman silver coin is shown below:
This was struck, probably in Neapolis or Metapontum, in around 280-276 BC. It features Mars on the obverse and a horsehead on the reverse. The legend has worn off on this example, but it reads ROMANO - short for ROMANORVM (of the Romans). It's basically a copy of a typical southern Italy silver coin of the period. This is a slightly earlier (ca 350-330 BC) coin from Metapontum:
So, by 280 BC Rome had the beginnings of a Greek-style coinage minted in southern Italy along with parallel issues in Rome of large cast coins and bars.
To be continued :)
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