Talk:Roman currency
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What a fascinating and detailed treatment of the subject! I can see that a lot of work went into this. Really terrific!
I made a number of minor edits. A couple of questions remain:
Under "Early Currency", we read: "Next a standardized currency cast bronze based around the domination known as the as, which weighed one Roman pound, and fractional values." I see no verb in this sentence. If I had to guess what's missing, I would insert something like "came" after "Next", and insert "in" after "cast".
In the final paragraph, a word appeared to be missing where we read about "the expense of continual ___". I inserted the word "wars" here. Hope that is right.
I wonder whether it might be useful to insert the word "minter" after the first usage of the word "moneyer". It was the first time I'd seen that word.
Thanks for the excellent article.
-- Jose Ramos 11:23, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Thanks for reading through the page and making corrections. I have corrected the sentence under "Early Currency" to read "Next came a standardized currency of cast bronze...". You're right, before it wasn't a complete sentence. Adding "wars" was correct, I guess I sometimes leave words out. I put "moneyer" in parenthesis after a mention of "tresviri monetales", because that is the official I was referring to. The term minter is usually applied to the person actually making the coins as opposed to the official in charge of the coinage (moneyer). Glad you enjoyed what I wrote. M123 19:34, 25 Aug 2003 (UTC)
[edit] Diminished size of what?
"...valued at originally at 10 asses, it was retariffed in 140 BC to 16 asses (to reflect the diminished size of the as)."
I'm assuming "ass" is meant (as in "donkey"), but can someone clarify why ass size decreased before 140 BC?
Wikisux 04:18, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- The as (coin) decreased in size. I can't comment on the size of their donkeys. Maximus Rex 07:55, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- I stand corrected... and hopefully a little wiser. Thanks. Wikisux 08:34, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
[edit] second century BC
"These were used from the middle of the second century BC ...."
From the II Punic war, in the third century BC.
[edit] Problems
There are many problems with this page, mostly having to do with covering too much territory in one page. For example, the first sentence is wrong:
The main Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including: the aureus (gold), the denarius (silver), the sestertius (bronze), the dupondius (bronze), and the as (copper).
The aureus was not used in the republic at all; the sestertius was never made of bronze during the republic, the as usually was.
I intend to work on the roman republican coinage page for a while and try to improve that one smaller area. I suggest that this page simply point to that one; it is already much more accurate.
