The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

494 SIR ARTHUR EVANS.
It must have the same significance on the solidus of
Magnus Maximus with the name of Augusta, where
it rises above the exergual line, as in other con-
temporary gold pieces of similar type.
Sanctioned thus in the same way by the Imperial
effigies, stamped by the same monetary officers and
with a similar certificate of the metal as " obryzum ",
it will be seen that such bars were by this time as
much a part of the official currency of the Empire
as the coins issued from the same mints. They repre-
sented various weights of precious metal of a very
high standard of guaranteed purity. Their fabric
itself was much more economical than that of struck
coins of an equivalent value, and in large amounts
paid by weight they were a distinct convenience.
The evidence of similar vehicles of currency in
silver with the same official guarantee of purity was
subsequently afforded by the discovery
in 1898 at
Dierstorf, north of Minden, of three ingots stamped
by officinatores of the Roman and Treveran mints."
The ingots with incurved sides of very ancient
tradition, somewhat resembling early double axes
were three in number, weighing respectively 299-73,
309-5, and 309-81 grammes. The first ingot bears a
stamp with three Imperial busts, the central one
facing, the other two, one of them of a young boy,
in profile, and both the style, the comparative ages,
and the grouping correspond with exagia solidi or
solidus weights attributed to the end of the fourth
99 H. Willers, Rdmische Billet-barren mil Stempeln (Num. Zeitschr.,
xxx (1898), pp. 211 seqq., and xxxi (1899), pp. 35 seqq.). The
ingots were first erroneously said to have been found at Nendorf.