The 'heads' of a contemporary coin, with a head of the god Bacchus, that was sampled as part of the project.Credit: University of Warwick
Posted on 04/09/2022 8:05:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
New scientific analysis of the composition of Roman denarii has brought fresh understanding to a financial crisis briefly mentioned by the Roman statesman and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero in his essay on moral leadership, De Officiis, and solved a longstanding historical debate.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Liverpool have analyzed coins of the period and revealed a debasement [sic] of the currency far greater than historians had thought, with coins that had been pure silver before 90BC cut with up to 10 percent copper five years later...
The reference is part of an anecdote describing self-serving behavior by Marius Gratidianus, who took credit for a proposal for currency reform worked out jointly by the tribunes and the college of praetors and became hugely popular with the public as a result...
"One theory is that Gratidianus fixed the exchange rate between the silver denarius and the bronze as (which had only recently been reduced in weight). Another is that he published a method for detecting fake denarii, and so restored faith in the coinage...
These findings are part of a larger EU-funded study that aims to examine the financial and monetary strategies of Mediterranean states from c. 150 BCE to a major coinage reform in c. 64 CE by providing a detailed and reliable set of analyses of the chemical composition of all major silver coinages of that period.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
The 'heads' of a contemporary coin, with a head of the god Bacchus, that was sampled as part of the project.Credit: University of Warwick
It’s nice to know we can debase our currency without issue, unlike the Romans. After all we have “experts”. /sarcasm
So the Roman Treasury began printing Federal Reserve Notes rather than Silver Certificates.
Very Interesting.
Americans take note, History Repeats Itself.
I thought this was well known. Perhaps not the specifics listed here, but debasing the coinage is an old and established trick. The Romans often had financial crises because the government spent too much and then needed to stretch the money supply further than it could go.
Fuel for somebody's fire, because everything else was already burning down. Hope your weekend turns out nice.
Kind of a Roman week here at GGG.
The other GGG topics added since the last digest ping:
“I thought this was well known.”
Agreed—debasement of the currency is a “classic” .gov scam.
The “progressive” income tax turned it into .gov windfall time.
Well maybe there was a financial crisis, and maybe there wasn’t. One thing for certain, in 2000 years nobody is going to be digging up bitcoins.
Thanks Dan!
‘The college of praetors”
Great football team.
Went 11-1 last year.
If he was wearing a baseball cap, he’d look just like my Uncle Bill.
Why "sic?" The word "debasement" is totally appropriate and fitting here. What is the author trying to imply?
A debasement of coinage is the practice of lowering the intrinsic value of coins, especially when used in connection with commodity money, such as gold or silver coins. A coin is said to be debased if the quantity of gold, silver, copper or nickel in the coin is reduced.
-Wikipedia
Regards,
Sounds like a bit of insider embezzlement- steal 10% of the raw silver and replace it with copper so the expected number of coins are minted.
If one studies the last years of the Roman Republic, it becomes frightenly obvious how true that is.
pre-1982 penny 100% copper
Worth three cents
Now, they’re yanked out of circulation and replaced with zinc.
...nothing new under the sun
Perhaps the author believes that the common use of the word with respect to morally corrupt behavior in humans is always editorially incorrect because one is never to make value judgements on the broad spectrum of human behavior (with the narrow exception of whatever it is that non RINO Republicans, none of which he has ever met, do from the time they open their eyes in the morning to the time they fall asleep at night).
Part of the Roman Reserve Bank policy of Quantitatos Levatio.
Money shortages cause problems. The Romans figured that out long before some moderns did.
:^)
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