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The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

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COINAGE AND CURRENCY IN ROMAN BRITAIN. 519<br />

<strong>the</strong> control <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Praepositus <strong>The</strong>saurorum Augustensium<br />

in Britanniis.<br />

<strong>The</strong> whole ingots represented pound weights <strong>of</strong><br />

silver, varying from a little over 300 grammes in <strong>the</strong><br />

case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Coleraine specimen, to about 323 in <strong>the</strong> case<br />

<strong>of</strong> that from <strong>the</strong> Tower. <strong>The</strong>ir stamps, moreover, were<br />

so placed that a cut between <strong>the</strong> two lines <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>of</strong>ficial inscription would divide <strong>the</strong>m into two halves,<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> half-ingot seems to have had at least as large<br />

a circulation as <strong>the</strong> whole. <strong>The</strong> value <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pound<br />

<strong>of</strong> silver, as we have seen, was fixed at 5 solidi or<br />

120 siliquae, 147 so that <strong>the</strong> half-ingots would have been<br />

worth 2J solidi or 60 siliquae. But payment at this<br />

time certainly went by weight <strong>and</strong> not by <strong>the</strong> nominal<br />

value as represented by <strong>the</strong> coinage, <strong>and</strong> it would have<br />

taken nearer 200 siliquae <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> reduced Honcrian<br />

weight to make <strong>the</strong> equivalent <strong>of</strong> a pound <strong>of</strong> silver.<br />

ARTHUR EVANS.<br />

147 Cod. <strong>The</strong>od., xiii. 2. 1.

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