Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

MONEY.

5

born B.C. 341, its value was estimated to be to that of silver as not
more than ten to one.
The coins of the cities of Greece' and their colonies exhibit the
finest specimens of the art of coining in earlier times. The coins
of Syracuse reached the highest degree of perfection, and the remains
of these are marvels of art. The Roman coinage was inferior to that
of the Greeks, but from the age of Augustus to Hadrian, the Roman
coins maintained a high degree of excellence in their execution.
The earliest coinage of the Romans was of copper in the time of
Servius Tullius, and they are supposed to have borrowed the art from
the Etruscans. The silver coinage of the denarius was not introduced
before the year 266 B.C., and was so named as having the value of
ten asses. The gold coinage according to Pliny (L[ist. Nat. xxxIIi.
13) was introduced 62 years after the introduction of the silver
coinage. The largest gold coin was the aureus. Aurei and Semiaurei were the only coins in gold for nearly 300 years. Until the
time of Sulla the aureus continued at 30 silver denarii, but in the
reign of Claudius it was reduced to 25.2
The coins of Rome during the Emperors form a most interesting
series. The copper coins are of historical importance. The largest
was the Sestercius, and from the age of Augustus was called nummus
or cereus, of the value about twopence English. From the time of
Augustus to Gallienus, the silver denarius contained 16 assaria.
The coins extant of people and nations preserve and indicate some
of the authentic facts of history, and are of service in determining
with accuracy the order of events, and the succession of kings and
rulers. A few brief notices of the history and use of coined money
in our own country from early times, may appear to be a subject
neither devoid of interest nor unworthy of the attention of the student.
When Julius Ceesar first landed in Britain, about 55 B.C., he states
in his Commentaries on the Gallic war, that the ancient Britons
"use brass as gold money, or iron rings adjusted to a certain weight,
instead of money," without further explanation.
Of the coins of the early British kings before the invasion of
Julius Caesar, very little is known. There is one described by
Mr. Evans (Ancient British Coins), having on its reverse the letters
I The valuable collection of Greek coins made by Colonel Leake was
purchased for the University of Cambridge; and a catalogue of a selection of them,
exhibited in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has been published by Churchill
Babington, B.D., F.L.S., &c., Disney Professor of Archaeology, pp. 51, 4to., 1867.
2 It appears from the account of Pliny, that the value of gold to silver in
the time of the republic was about 141 to one; but this relative value did not long
continue at Rome. Her armies had become victorious in every quarter of th(
world, and her conquests were rapid and extensive. She quickly became acquainted with the wealth of other nations and adopted such a policy as suited
her own views of acquisition. About 189 B.C., the relative value of gold
to silver was estimated at 10 to 1 (Liv. xxxviii., 11). At a later period, conquest
and plunder appear to have been the objects of Caesar's expeditions in Gaul.
When he returned to Rome with the plunder he had seized in Gaul; the gold
amassed, according to Suetonius (Jul. Caes. c.lix), was so immense that a pound
was sold for 750 denarii throughout Italy. If the pound weight be meant, the
value of gold to silver was then as 9 is to 1 nearly, there being 84 denarii in the
pound weight. If the pound tale be meant, in which 100 denarii were reckoned
to the pound, the relative value would have been as 7 - to 1.
3 Utuntur tamen sre ut nummo aureo, aut annulis ferreis ad certum pondus
examinatis, pro nummis.-Ccesar, De Bell. Gall. V. fol. Rom. 1496, Ed. Princeps.