As (Roman coin)
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The as (pl.: assēs), occasionally assarius (pl.: assarii, rendered into Greek as ἀσσάριον, assárion),[1] was a bronze, and later copper, coin used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.
Republican era coinage
The Romans replaced the usage of Greek coins, first by bronze ingots, then by disks known as the
After the as had been issued as a cast coin for about seventy years, and its weight had been reduced in several stages, a sextantal as was introduced (meaning that it weighed one-sixth of a pound). At about the same time a silver coin, the
During the Republic, the as featured the bust of
Imperial era coinage
Following the coinage reform of Augustus in 23 BC, the as was struck in reddish pure copper (instead of bronze), and the sestertius or 'two-and-a-halfer' (originally 2.5 asses, but now four asses) and the dupondius (2 asses) were produced in a golden-colored alloy of bronze known by numismatists as orichalcum. The as continued to be produced until the 3rd century AD. It was the lowest valued coin regularly issued during the Roman Empire, with semis and quadrans being produced infrequently, and then not at all sometime after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The last as seems to have been produced by Aurelian between 270 and 275 and at the beginning of the reign of Diocletian.[3]
Byzantine coinage
The as, under its Greek name assarion, was re-established by the Emperor
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- ^ Pierre-François Puech. "Deux As de Nimes au Musée d'Arles : A Roman Coin and the Myth of Anthony and Cleopatra | Pierre-François Puech". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
- ^ "Aurelian Æ As. Rome mint. IMP AVRELIANVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right / CONCORDIA AVG, Aurelian and Severina clasping hands, radiate bust of Sol, right, above them. RIC 80, Cohen 35. * Sear RCV [1988] s3276 *". Wildwinds.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-02. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
- ISBN 978-0-88402-274-9, archived from the original(PDF) on 2010-06-13, retrieved 2010-03-12