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6 - The Strangeness of Rome’s Early Heavy Bronze Coinage
from Part II - Material Sources
- By Liv Mariah Yarrow
Edited by Seth Bernard, University of Toronto, Lisa Marie Mignone, New York University, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Princeton University, New Jersey
Book:

Making the Middle Republic

Published online:

20 April 2023

Print publication:

27 April 2023, pp 103-131
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Summary

This chapter revisits the function of Rome’s earliest cast bronze coinages or aes grave (RRC 14, 18, and 19). Primary attention is given to the complex denomination system and new statistical analyses of the weights of known specimens. This new evidence is combined with known find spot data and comparative evidence from aes rude to suggest that the heaviness of these monetary objects met regional cultural expectations while also imitating Greek coinage styles. The chapter also demonstrates that these series are unlikely to conform to different weight standards, being all on a libral standard, with the existence of a so-called “supra-libral” standard being only a misinterpretation of the available data. The degree of variation in the data, with many “overweight” specimens among the lower denominations, strongly suggests that the intrinsic value of the raw materials was secondary to their face value.