[SES1066]

And you can bet he was getting paid in REAL Gold, not fiat money.

Permit me to give you a caveat on this. Two ways of 'false money' in that era were gold-over-lead 'slugs' and 'clipped' coinage. Both were considered forms of counterfeiting although the lead slug was an invitation to immediate judgement and death. As for 'clipping', that is why you see most non-ancient high-value coins being 'reeded' (the mini cog-wheel ridging along the edges, credited to Sir Isaac Newton). In ancient times, a bit cut off of silver and gold coins was a common way to make money "go farther" so long as the coins could be still exchanged for "face value".

[Antoninus]

In ancient times, a bit cut off of silver and gold coins was a common way to make money "go farther" so long as the coins could be still exchanged for "face value".

Yup. Under Justinian, there was an official in Italy named Alexander "the Scissors" who was famous for just this type of operation.