Claudius and the Senatorial Mint

Extract

The object of this note is to call attention to a passage in Professor A. Momigliano's Claudius: the Emperor and his Achievement (Oxford, 1934), which appears to stand in need of correction. This duty is all the more necessary because the book—a model of scholarly and concise writing, not easily to be emulated—has rightly won so highly authoritative and influential a place among students. The passage in question is to be found in p. 40 f., as follows: ‘In his monetary policy Claudius showed throughout a desire to recognise in full measure the rights of the Senate. Augustus, after making various experiments, ended by restricting the Senate's share of minting to the copper coinage for Italy, and kept the coinage of gold and silver and the remainder of the copper coinage in his own hands, with the principal mint at Lyons. Tiberius continued Augustus' policy in the main, though he tended to restrict provincial minting. In Gaius' reign this tendency was carried to its logical extreme; a fundamental change was made, the Lyons mint being transferred to Rome. The pretence that it was meant only for the coinage of the provinces was finally abandoned; and soon afterwards nearly all the other western provincial mints were closed even for the coinage of copper. Now one feature that differentiates Claudius' reign from that which preceded it is the reappearance in large quantities of a provincial copper coinage, easily recognisable by its coarse manufacture; and this coinage always bears the mark of the Senate (S.C.).’