Note 10: — II.—COINS. (Table-Case K.)

Roman Coins.—As gold in the Asiatic coastlands and silver in European Greece, so in Italy the native medium of exchange was bronze. In the earliest times the raw metal was circulated in broken knobs of indefinite weight (aes rude), which required in all transactions the use of scales. The rude metal was afterwards superseded by cast ingots of an oblong shape, which bore a device to indicate their purpose as money (aes signatum). Yet the weights were still irregular, and no mark of value accompanied the types, so that the pieces were not strictly coins. A survival of this primitive currency is seen in the large ingot which has on one side a tripod and on the other an anchor (No. 37; fig. 13). This piece itself belongs to a later period, when the lighter coined money was already in use. The special purpose for which this and similar pieces were intended is quite uncertain. The first coinage of Rome was less massive than this, but being entirely of bronze, was still inconveniently large and cumbrous (aes grave). The Roman of the fourth century B.C., when he found it necessary to transport any considerable sum, took his money about with him in a waggon.10 The use of bronze for a token currency, as in Greece, was not possible without a superior coinage of gold or silver to secure its value.