Ancient Coins: Roman Imperial Denominations

The Roman Empire saw centuries of very active economic activity and enormous prosperity. As a very monetized society, it needed many different denominations to facilitate trade between its millions of citizens.

Today, we will explore the Monetary Reform of Augustus, going from the most humble of copper coins all the way to the gold pieces, know their relative values between one another, and see a real-life situation on how to give change on ancient Pompeii, lets go!

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Stock footage Credited to Videvo
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Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

[danielconde]

The joy of hearing Latin properly spoken is only surpassed by the joy of the informative content of the video.

[IanZainea]

For those curious, here is a list of the number of each denomination that add up to a Denarius:
1 Denarius =
2 Quinarii
4 Sestersii
8 Dupondii
16 As
32 Semii
64 Quadrans

Double these numbers for 1 Antoninianus
25x these numbers for 1 Aureus

Interesting note! If 1 Denarius was a day's wages. And let's say that was for 8 hours of work (probably they worked more, but for easy math), and lunch was 1 As, then that means that lunch was one half-hour's worth of wages. Though probably more likely between one half-hour-wage or one one-hour-wage. And that's just assuming most people made 1 denarius per day, and not just the military.

So ask yourself: How much work does it cost you to buy lunch? Do you get paid better than Romans?

Edit: Let's say a lunch of similar quality would be $10-15 USD in America

[nicholasricardo]

Wow that was great classical pronunciation! Latin is such a beautiful language

[John_NJDM]

This was a very easy to understand look at Roman coinage! Thanks for breaking it down. It was very interesting to see you actually handle real coins.

[cerv.]

Love this channel, i came from r/Coins, and i fell in love with the easy to digest guides for classical numismatics.

[thatoneguy]

1:12 The way you said 'hi everyone!' as soon as that statue of Trajan showed up made it seem like he was the one teaching people about ancient coins xD

[aureaphilos]

@5:05 Back in the early 2000s I was purchasing "uncleaned Roman coins" that I'd purchased on eBay, and I remember finding a brassy yellow coin... Now AT LAST I understand more about this mystery coin! I remember that my research found that it had been minted in northern Asia Minor, but don't remember any other details. It was rather pitted, but it was generally legible. I must find where I stashed that coin away!! Thanks!!!

[jileel]

That coin with the closed gate is stunning.

[philwardle]

I'm just getting into ancient coins and found this very helpful indeed as I am now, as a pensioner, just starting to invest in some uncleaned items as a hobby for the surprise of seeing what they turn out to be. Ever since I visited Pompeii as a child with my parents in the 1950's, which had a profound effect on me, I have been fascinated with ancient history, especially Roman. As an aside, now being an ancient myself, I was taught Latin (and sadly, less Greek) as a matter of course back then and was fairly fluent, so I must compliment you on your excellent pronunciation of classical Latin.

[MrYdna]

Good job! Very attractive video material! :-)

[harrisonfiller]

Thank you! I’m very new to coin collecting but Roman coins are one of my interests.

[Hybridious]

If I was an 8th grader I would've laughed at the coin 'As' pronounciation. Then made some joke about paying in it. Other than that I was surprised to see that the Romans were almost as modern as the modern day with finance, they had a complex taxing system, with loans and such really cool.

[barndoorbangers]

I'm researching roman and greek coins to make some novelty replicas. Your channel is so helpful.

[BopWalk]

I freaking love this channel!

I have some cool roman coins in my.collection.
Agustus, Hadrian, Trajan, Constantine I.

[ausfyausfy]

10:00 I knew Nero was a thicc emperor, but I never knew even the coin depicted his thicc neck!

[artemisarrow]

An excellent video I couldn’t stop watching. Really makes you reflect on the coins we have now

[MrDjonz]

Very interesting! Thank you for the vid.

[strykerxl]

That was really awesome!! Honestly the video was really well done. You have a sub, like, and notification bell from me!!!

[blakes]

That Augustus denarius is so beautiful!

It’s truly a museum worthy piece.

In my experience it’s extremely rare for the entire circle around the portrait of a coin to remain. Sometimes parts of it remains but the entire thing is rare.

It’s definitely an overweight denarius.

Oh and an expensive one! I could see that selling for $5, 000 easily.

I’ve been looking for an Augustus denarius in similar condition (even without the full circle) with a $2, 500 budget and so far I’ve found nothing.

Don’t even get me started on trying to find a reasonably priced denarius of Caligula.

[writheinthedeepfry]

There is just something about touching a coin that has went through hand after hand for over a millennia.