A golden presentation! I have two small remarks: the solidus of Honorius was struck when his father Theodosius I was still alive and the 'senior' emperor in the Roman Empire. Honorius and Arcadius had both been raised to co-emperorship with their father. The reverse shows 'CONCORDIA AVGGG', with the three G's representing the three co-emperors. Later solidii (after 395 AD) from Honorius and Arcadius show 'CONCORDIA AVGG', meaning only two emperors were ruling. The other remark is that the tremissis of Justin I is actually a semissis, or half of a solidus. The design of the tremissis remained unchanged for quite some time, always showing 'VICTORIA AVGVSTORVM' on the reverse. Curiously, the reverse of this semissis (as discussed above) suggests that Justin I ruled with two co-emperors, but this is not the case. He did share rule with his nephew Justinian the Great for the last months of his life, however.
Just want to say I really appreciate your videos. As someone who got into numismatics within the last year, your videos have been a wealth of knowledge. Thanks!
It depended a lot based on the time period. Roman legionaries were mostly paid in silver, 3 times per year, probably for the sake of practicality as smaller change, but situations like donatives from the emperor or certain rewards could very well be paid in gold. A recruit would receive 3 Aureii as a help to buy his equipment once he enlisted, so thats an instance where they would receive gold. Other time period such as the later Byzantine empire, given the prevalence of gold, would mean that troops would probably be paid in gold. It really depends a lot on the context as you can see.
Great channel! You provide excellent content for all collectors of ancient coins. Out of curiosity, where are you from and do you currently live in the USA? Just wondering.
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Regarding 1:26, the gold content in Electrum coins from ancient Lydia varied from 45% to 55%. Eventually the Gold Parting Process was invented which could separate Gold & Silver from Electrum and enabled Silver coins and Gold coins to be minted separately. The Electrum separation process is known as Salt Cementation where Electrum was combined with salt, urine and brick dust (or pulverized pottery shards), sealed in a crucible and heated. Purified Gold would remain in the crucible along with Silver Chloride which would later be purified into Silver. To convert Silver Chloride into pure Silver powder, a refiner would mix into the aqueous solution some Lye and some Sugar. Thereafter melt the recovered pure Silver powder into bullion.
Curious point you make there! It is unlikely, however, since a trite used numismatically just related to a third of something. There are some expressions related to unimportant coins that still remain to this day, like "no tengo ni blanca", but these have their origins in medieval coins.
@@ClassicalNumismatics The evolution of words in living languages is inevitable. I just heard the town of Mayfield, Kentucky, USA (Flattened by tornado yesterday) described as "decimated" (On national news) which literally means reduced by one tenth. This and other words like literally 🤓the word "literally" which can now mean "virtually," "precisely," etc. become redefined. I have an Etymology expert friend who can trace "trite" to Indo European roots. He will like this project! Also, the word Plata is used for dinero en general 😎
