roman_coins.pdf

YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

SCULPTURE HALL

ROMAN COINS

DENOMINATIONS OF ROMAN COINS

Although the earliest Roman coins used Greek denomi-

nations, such as the didrachm (two-drachm piece), the

Romans had their own system in place by the late third

century b.c. The base unit of Roman coinage was the

as. The principal silver coin became the denarius, at ﬁ rst

worth ten asses, subsequently revalued at sixteen.

Coins were also minted in several denominations worth

fractions of the denarius; from the time of Augustus,

the most important of these was the sestertius,

an orichalcum (brass) piece worth one-quarter of a

denarius. Under the Empire, the standard gold coin, or

aureus, was equivalent in value to twenty-ﬁ ve denarii.

This guide was written by Richard A. Grossmann,

graduate student, History of Art, in consultation with

William E. Metcalf, Curator of Coins and Medals.

RIGHT CASE

ROMAN COINS

INTRODUCTION

The coins we use today are direct descendants of

the coins created by the Greeks and the Romans. In

antiquity, as today, coins were minted in a variety

of metals—chieﬂy, gold, silver, and various alloys of

copper—each with a particular material worth; gold

was far more valuable than silver, which, in turn,

greatly surpassed copper. A broad assortment of

denominations could be achieved by creating coins

from speciﬁc quantities of the different metals.

Ordinarily, the monetary value of a given coin was

guaranteed by whoever issued it, usually a city or

a ruler, and that guarantee was signiﬁed by ofﬁcial

markings on the coin itself. These markings could be as

simple as a geometric punch or as complex as a portrait

head, a statue of a deity, or an architectural tableau

in raised relief. The efﬁcacy of coins as information-

bearing media was quickly recognized. Images provided

a means of visual communication with largely illiterate

audiences; for the literate, abbreviated texts, known

as legends, often identiﬁed the issuing authority

(ruler and/or mint), as well as the deity depicted or

event commemorated.

Silver didrachm of Rome

Rome, 269 b.c.

20 mm

ile2002.11.32

PRODUCTION

HAMMER

PUNCH

REVERSE DIE

FLAN

OBVERSE DIE

ANVIL

Most ancient coins were produced by striking blanks

of metal between two incised dies. Each die left a relief

copy of its engraved design on the face of the coin with

which it had come into contact. This imprinted image,

along with its accompanying legend, is known as a coin

type. The dies were meant to be re-used, and the same

type sometimes appears on thousands of coins. The

mass production of coinage permitted rapid distribution

of large sums of money for use in a variety of situ–

ations—as pay for government and military service, as

cash for the purchase of goods, as taxes collected by

cities and states, or as savings hoarded away.

Early Roman silver relied heavily on models provided

by Alexander the Great and his successors. The obverse

of a Roman didrachm 1 of 269 b.c. depicts a head of

Hercules (the Roman name for Herakles), who was also

the centerpiece of Alexander’s coinage (as on 9 in the

case of Greek coins to the left). Hercules is identiﬁ able

here by the club and lion’s paw resting on his shoulder.

The hero also bears a close resemblance to coin

portraits of some of the kings who ruled over Alexander’s

divided empire and even wears a diadem (band). The

reverse, on the other hand, features a quintessentially

Roman image—the she-wolf suckling the twins Romulus

and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.

Silver denarius of Rome

Rome, 211–208 b.c.

22 mm

2001.87.168

3 Silver denarius of Julius Caesar

as Dictator perpetuo

Rome, 44 b.c.

18.5 mm

2001.87.577

The ﬁ nancial strains caused by the Second Punic War

with Carthage (218–201 b.c.) forced Roman mint ofﬁ cials

to establish a lower weight standard for silver coins, and

so the denarius came into being (at ﬁ rst worth ten asses,

later revalued at sixteen). At the same time, military

symbolism came to dominate the coinage. The female

head wearing a winged helmet on the obverse of this

coin 2 is generally identiﬁ ed as Roma, the personiﬁ ed

patron goddess of the city, especially as a military

power; the reverse depicts the Dioscuri, patron deities

of the Roman army, who are shown on horseback and

wielding long spears.

In 44 b.c., Julius Caesar, having prevailed over his rivals

in Rome’s civil war, began his ﬁ fth term as consul and

was named “dictator forever.” In the same year, a coin

type 3 was introduced with an obverse that not only

declared this unprecedented distinction in the legend,

but also featured his portrait, wearing a laurel wreath

symbolizing victory. Julius Caesar thus became the

ﬁ rst living person to be portrayed on a Roman coin in a

manner customary for a king. The reverse bore an image

of the goddess Venus, from whom Caesar claimed

descent. Caesar was assassinated within a few weeks

of the minting of this coin.

Silver denarius of Octavian

Pergamum, 28–27 b.c.

20 mm

2001.87.885

Silver denarius of Augustus

Rome, 19 b.c.

19 mm

2001.87.991

RIGHT CASE: ROMAN COINS

Octavian, Caesar’s grand-nephew and adopted son, was

forced to contend with a number of other prominent

Romans, each believing himself to be Caesar’s rightful

successor. One of them, Marc Antony, a Roman

statesman and general, allied himself with Cleopatra

VII of Egypt. Octavian defeated their combined forces

in a naval battle at Actium in 31 b.c., after which he

took control of Egypt. A coin type minted in 28–27 b.c.

4 celebrates this triumph, with Octavian’s portrait on

the obverse and a crocodile straddled by the legend

“Egypt captured” on the reverse. After receiving the

honoriﬁc title of Augustus in 27 b.c., he turned his

attention to stabilizing the provinces through both

force and negotiation. His greatest diplomatic success,

commemorated on the reverse of a coin type issued

in 19 b.c. 5, was the peaceful return of Roman military

standards—ﬂags carried by the Roman army into

battle—that had been lost to the Parthians in past

conﬂicts. Although Augustus is not explicitly portrayed

on the obverse of this coin, the facial features of Honos,

the personiﬁcation of Honor, are similar to those of the

emperor. The reverse depicts a kneeling Parthian holding

out a Roman standard.

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