The Roman Empire lasted over a period of about five centuries. Besides keeping back a number of historic wars and other important political events, Rome experienced great economic prosperity under various Emperors. This is evident from the variety of coins they issued throughout the lifespan of the Empire. We have gathered some important facts about the coins of Ancient Rome which you should know.

Roman coins were issued in all the three principal metals- bronze, gold and silver.
These coins were of various sizes. These coins were valued on the basis of their weight. The earliest of the Roman coins discovered was made of bronze and it was issued around 269 BC.
These coins were minted in over 40 different cities. The name of the mint in Rome was Juno Monet and it is from here, that the term ‘money’ came into being.
Similarly, the term ‘coin’ came from the word ‘consecratio’ which was issued by the Emperor in order to pay homage or tribute to their deceased family members.
The ancient Roman gold coins were called Aurei which contained about 95% of pure gold. The silver coins were called Denarius, which consisted of 85% silver.
The copper coins were known as As which was stamped on one side carrying the image of the beak of a ship. Two types of silver coins were Denarius Sestertius and Denarius Victoriatus. Some other notable silver coins were Smebella, Teruncius and Libella. Libella has the same value as that of the As. The principal gold coin was Aureus Denarius.
Roman coins bear the name of the issuing emperor. We find a lot of emperors issuing coins in their names. Some of the famous emperors were Constantine, Marcus Antonius, Septimius Severus. Some of the Roman coins also included women in the impressions. These were of Antonia, Valeria Messalina, Cleopatra Selene and also many of the daughters of the ancient Roman leaders.
At first, the portraits of Pagan Gods and Goddesses were used by the Romans in their coins. This idea was copied from the Greeks. Later on, they started to put impressions of buildings on the coins. Symbols like stars and eagles were also used in the coins. In order to make an emperor popular, the images of the kings were also used in the coins.
Rome was one of the most powerful political as well as economic powers of the ancient world. Romans had trading connections with ancient India, Iran, Mediterranean world and northern Africa. Thus, in the archaeological excavations a large number of Roman coins have been unearthed from various parts of the aforementioned areas.
The ancient Roman coins are prized possessions for the modern collectors. Thus, a large number of forged coins are circulated in the market. You can only differentiate between a fake and real ancient Roman coin with the help of a test kit. Some of the important fake symbols of the coins include incorrect marks of the mint, wrong lettering on the coins and variation on the thickness in the coins. You can also detect the fake coins from the original one collected from a reliable source.

Ancient Roman Coins Value

AR Denarius (19mm, 3.79 g, 1h). Struck AD 212-213. The Roman coins are very easy to find in countries from Europe like Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, from Asia, like Turkey, Syria, or Africa like Egypt. The regions were occupied by the Romans in ancient times and coin finds are numerous and also the collectors’ interest in this domain is large.

The beginnings

Although Roman coinage soon diverged from Greek conventions, its origins were similar. Rome, founded in the 8th century bc, had no true coinage until the 3rd. Roman historians later attributed coinage unhesitatingly to the much earlier regal period: some derived nummus (“coin”) from Numa Pompilius, by tradition Rome’s second king, and Servius Tullius was credited with silver coinage, as well as with bronze stamped with the device of cattle. Roman historical tradition, however, seriously confused the elements of the true picture. Rough, unworked lumps of bronze (aes rude) were certainly used as a metal currency from the 6th century, if not much earlier, perhaps in rare conjunction with very small quantities of unworked gold and silver, themselves also passing by weight. Simultaneously, standards of value appear to have been expressed in terms of cattle and sheep, as is clear not only from the derivation of pecunia (“money”) from pecus (“cattle,” or “sheep”) but also from the early assessment of fines in oxen and sheep. From this it was falsely concluded that bronze coins marked with the device of cattle existed from the 6th century. In fact, the expression of values in terms of cattle may have lasted, officially, into the 5th century, for it was not until the decemvirs (a legislative commission) codified the law and drew up the Twelve Tables (451–449 bc) that fines were fixed in bronze. This bronze still consisted of unworked lumps or, at most, rough bars of irregular weight.

During the 4th century bc, Roman contact with the Greek cities of southern Italy slowly increased; these included such prolificmint cities as Nola, Hyria, and Naples. The coinages of these cities consisted of silver didrachms, of which Rome presumably made use in any necessary dealings with them. A hint is given, however, of widening Roman monetary interests by two issues of bronze token coinage. These, though certainly not produced at Rome, may perhaps be regarded as the earliest coins in the name of the Romans, struck at Naples about 325–285 within the terms of their alliance and intended for use in Campania, as distinct from Rome and Latium. It is unlikely, indeed, that a mint in the proper sense existed at Rome before 289, the year to which Pomponius assigned the establishment of tresviri (a board of three officials) who should be aeris flatores (“bronze melters”); and this mint (in the temple of Juno Moneta) did not yet produce true coins but aes signatum, bronze bars (of about six pounds) lacking a mark of value but bearing on each side a clearly recognizable type (including cattle) and perhaps equivalent in value to a Greek silver didrachm.

Ancient Roman Coins Identification

These aes signatum bars were halfway between aes rude and true coinage. In 269 true coinage appeared. It consisted of aes grave, large circular cast coins of bronze all bearing marks of value, from the as (weighing one pound) down to its 12th, the uncia; the obverses showed the head of a deity, the reverses a ship’s prow. These were paralleled at mints elsewhere by similar cast coins; their types showed not, as at Rome, Latin deities but rather Greek (in the south) or Umbrian and Oscan. At the same time, there appeared struck silver didrachms, on the standard of the Greek silver coins of Campania, bearing Greek types but marked ROMANO or ROMA. Accompanied by small struck bronze token coins, these were issued from Campanian mints, and they probably continued to the Second Punic War, terminating in a new issue of silver coins of Roman style and types (marked ROMA), including Jupiter in a quadriga (four-horse chariot) from which their name, quadrigati, derived; they were imitated in electrum by the Carthaginians in Capua. The quadrigati were of the weight of the lighter Romano-Campanian didrachms and reflected the rising cost of silver at a time of stress; concurrently the cast bronze coinage of Rome dropped steadily in weight from an as of one pound to one of three ounces or less. Financial stress is similarly to be seen in the exceptional issue of gold units and halves. Toward the end of the Second Punic War the quadrigati were replaced by silver coins of half their weight, with a Victory on the reverse, and hence called victoriates. By about 190 a mainly silver coinage, Latin-inscribed, was in production at Rome and other authorized mints, accompanied by bronze coinage so greatly reduced in standard (and thus size) that it could at last be struck instead of being cast.