Introduction
Imagine
an object that could tell you about the appearance, fashion, ideas, events,
economy, politics, and beliefs of ancient peoples. Now imagine that there are millions of these objects: the humble ancient coin. Its value goes way beyond the face
value. It is etched with history and
loaded with valuable insights into the ancient world. The common coin in ancient days, as it is
now, is a perfect intersection between the histories of the elites and the
humble commoners. It is also a bearer
of culture and meaning. The
monuments, statues, gods, goddesses, mountains, rivers, palaces, public
buildings, and prominent figures on coins spread the essence of each city or
region’s distinctive culture to the known world. Archaeologically, ancient coins tell of the policies enacted by
rulers, the times of civil turmoil, important historical events, allusions to
myths, the details of ancient architecture and dress, and the existence of
otherwise unknown usurpers or rulers.
However, there is one group of people of whom we know very little: the
coin makers themselves.
They were
the slaves and the forgotten ones of the ancient world. On these people’s backs and labor, the
glory of Greece and the grandeur of Rome were built. The objects they made were used to buy and
sell them. Through experimental
archaeology, one can find out more about these mint-workers, and indeed,
empathize with them. Through the
recreation of the ancient Roman minting process, one can find out much.
In this study, I attempted to
recreate the ancient Roman minting process for two different time periods: an
era of debasement and era of stability in silver content. Debasement of silver coinage occurred
during periods of crisis, but the silver content of coins did not improve to
the previous purity even after situations stabilized (See graph 1). This led to a general debasement over
time. For the first 150 years of
Roman imperial history (30 B.C.-120 A.D.), the silver content of coins was
above 90%, but for the next 130 years, the silver content of coins decreased
gradually and dramatically to 35% (120 A.D.-250 A.D.). This was a sure indicator that Rome was
losing its grip on economic, political, and social stability (Grant 1954:
247). With debasement of currency,
confidence was lost in the value of coinage.
This cut at the root of trade and industry and caused widespread ruin
(Grant 1954: 246). From the period
from A.D. 235-284, over thirty emperors rose and fell from power. They were called the “barrack emperors”
because they seized power by coup and just as fast and violently were
deposed. There were so many emperors
and usurpers of the throne that the whole empire was thrown into chaos. This was reflected in the more rapid than
usual rate of debasement of silver coinage.
In fact, during Aurelian’s reign (270-275), silver coinage had only
2.5% silver left in them (Carson 1990: 117).
Two methods were used in ancient Roman coin minting: the cold striking
of coins and the hot striking of coins.
With the assumption that Roman mints were primarily concerned with
efficiency, this experiment set out to find which method was preferable for
different types of silver coinage—nearly pure silver and debased silver
coins.
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