![]() You can click on any coin image to see the full coin. Here are a selection of Concordia coins, in date order. The Emperor is shown wearing a toga, civilian rather than military dress, to emphasise that the army is cooperating with the civilian authorities.Ĭoncord between the emperor and his wife, or between two co-rulers, was sometimes shown using the legend CONCORDIA and an image of the two people clasping hands. ![]() In this context the legend is usually CONCORDIA MILITVM. When the Emperor wanted to emphasise his harmony with the military, sometimes rather hopefully, a coin may show Concordia standing, holding one or two military standards, or clasping hands with the emperor. On the coinage, Concordia is usually shown with a cornucopia, a symbol of bounty and abundance, and sometimes with a statuette of Spes, personification of hope or positive expectation. Others show a standing figure, which might represent a cult statue from elsewhere some show or other symbolic representations of harmony. Oddly, none seem to show the short sceptre. Many coins show this cult figure, or variations of it. It is clear from this sestertius that the statue, or cult figure, of Concordia in her temple was a seated figure holding out a patera with her right hand and holding something in her left which might be a short sceptre. There was a temple of Concordia in Rome, rebuilt in Augustus' time and shown on a sestertius of Tiberius (far too expensve for my collection!). This was an important enough concept for the Romans to embody it in a minor, but still important, deity. The coins are the best part of 2000 years old and are exciting to collect.- The Sign Language of Roman Coins -Ĭoncordia - The Personification of HarmonyĬoncordia (on the right) clasps hands with the emperor AurelianĬoncordia is, of course concord, agreement and harmony. The great part of this is that you can put together a really nice Roman coin collection with very little money, as many coins (although not all) are common and inexpensive. The Aureus was introduced by Julius Caesar around 49BC and was the principal gold coin until about the 4th century when it was replaced by the gold Solidus. It's not far off the weight of a modern gold sovereign. The standard gold coin was the Aureus and was equal to 25 denarii or 100 sestertii. Values fluctuated later due to debasement and inflation. As a guide, in the early republic (after 211BC) there was the Sestertius (=4 denarii), Dupondius (=5), As (=10, a tenner), Semis (=20), Quincunx (=24), Triens (=30), Quadrans (=40), Uncia (=120) and Solidus (=1000, it was gold). The Denarius was the standard Roman silver coin and there were a range of others. Roman Republican Coins (about 300BC - 27BC) During the Empire, more than 10,000 different types of coins were created using copper, silver and gold. Coins typically depicted the Emperor on one side and some other image or letters on the other. These mints sometimes produced more than 2 million coins per month to meet demand. Originally coins were minted only in Rome, but by the third Century there were mints in other countries too. And all these places used Roman coins throughout the era. It was in existence from 27BC to 476AD, more than 500 years. Category: RomanThe Roman Empire was one of the largest Empires in history, covering most of Europe, Britain, parts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
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