Roman Republican Coins

Roman Republican Coins

Yesterday's entry finished with the first silver coin struck for Rome, a didrachm (two drachma piece).
These coins were probably struck around 280 BC to pay for Rome's war against Tarentum and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece who came to the aid of the Greek colonies in Italy and is best remembered today for the term "Pyrrhic Victory".

As well as the Mars/horsehead didrachm, other types were struck with Apollo and Hercules on the obverse and a horse or wolf & twins on the reverse.

This is one of the slightly later types, with Apollo and a horse.   The legend is now ROMA, not ROMANO - it's now the name of the city, not "of the Romans", which was a more Greek-style legend.


Beneath is a struck bronze coin of the period (~300 BC to ~230 BC):

These were token coins (i.e. they circulated for a value in excess of their metal value) and probably were mainly used for trade with southern Italian cities, which wouldn't have used the much heavier cast bronze coins.

At around 225 BC, a design change took place, with the obverse now featuring a Janus head and the reverse Jupiter driving a quadriga (chariot drawn by four horses).   This change in design took place at the same time as a change to the designs of the cast bronze coins (aes grave).   These now featured a Janus head on the obverse of the as (the 1 pound coin) and the prow of a galley on the reverse.   Smaller bronze coins had different heads, but the prow reverse was standard.

This is an example of a later didrachm, the so-called quadrigatus - named for the quadriga on the reverse.   These initially weighed more than 6g and were of fine silver, but during the Second Punic War became lighter and made from debased silver as the Roman coffers ran low.   During this period, the coin was probably worth 6 asses (plural of as).

Drachm coins are less common - these are half the weight and have Jupiter driving left rather than right.

I don't have an example of an aes grave as, but here's a sextans (1/6th of an as):

Mercury is on the obverse (as on all sextantes) - he always is shown with the same winged hat which aids in identification.   There are two pellets below the head and two on the reverse, below the prow of a galley.

The Roman pound was made up of 12 unciae (ounces).   The number of pellets on the coins indicates how many unciae it weighs - a sextans has two pellets and is worth two unciae.   The standard denominations for these case coins were:

• As - initially ~324g, later reduced to ~278g
• Semis (half an as)
• Triens (third of an as)
• Quadrans (quarter of an as)
• Sextans (sixth of an as)
• Uncia (twelfth of an as)

Fractions of an uncia were also made - these were often struck - in fact, some of the smaller denominations were struck rather than cast.

From about 225 BC until after the Second Punic War, these were the coins issued by Rome - silver quadrigati and large cast bronze coins.

The main event in Roman Republican coinage history is the introduction of the Denarius Coinage in 211 BC and that will be the subject of the next post.