As (Roman coin)

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c. 240–225 BC. Æ Aes grave As

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

cast bronze coin during the Roman Republic. The following fractions of the as were also produced: the bes (23), semis (12), quincunx (512), triens (13), quadrans (14), sextans (16), uncia (112, also a common weight unit), and semuncia (124), as well as multiples of the as, the dupondius (2), sestertius
(212), and tressis (3).

An etching of a Roman Republican as

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

Punic Wars
.

During the Republic, the as featured the bust of

libral
and then the reduced libral weight standard. As the weight decreased, the bronze coinage of the Republic switched from being cast to being struck. During certain periods, no asses were produced at all.

Imperial era coinage

Nero as

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

follaro.[1][4]

See also

References