Did Roman Coins Circulate after the Fall of the Empire? 

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For me a ancient coins collector from China, it is really fascinating to think about that my coins have survived 2000 years and finally come to me. Romans who once minted and used them would have never thought that their money will travel to "Serica", a far east country so far away from Roma.

I read somewhere that Constantinian bronzes were still circulating as small change in the south of France as late as the time of Napoleon III.

One could argue that, spiritually, Rome never really fell. If anything, its influence only expanded. We still write and speak using Latin based languages, buildings are still being built around the world that take styles from Greek and Roman architecture, art is still being made in the style of Greek and Roman art, we still use Roman numerals, the Catholic Church, a Roman era institution, is still around and thriving. Not to mention the coins we have today, particularly in the US, UK, Canada, etc. still use a lot of the same design choices as Roman coins. Hell, we even see Latin itself still being used in a number of fields and in coinage and such. Many Roman symbols, such as the fasces and Lady Liberty, is still used as symbols of countries today. The US (and other countries) even takes a lot of ideas for governance from the Romans themselves. I could go on and on. Regardless, the influence of the Roman Empire can still be very much seen in our day to day lives despite it having been about 1500 years since the fall of the Western Roman Empire and about 600 years since the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire.

11:20, good point, I never thought about that... of course those Renaissance collections we hear about today were those of the nobilty and the very rich, but some middle class scholar may have also collected, mostly clerics... in fact, I recall a "hoard" of Roman coins found in Mexico in aracheological context... it is supposed to have been the collection of some 17th century Spanish numismatist-friar who eventually hid it in face of some danger... I utterly understand him, he could not afford to come over here to the Americas without his collection, I would have done the same thing!

13:50 that's got to be a medieval instance of "not my job, boss" 💀

Miserably sad to think of how many Roman coins were melted down over the centuries and are now just plain elemental components of gold bars in a Swiss vault being held for some billionaire or other.

Great episode. I've often wondered when a Roman coin in my collection was last used to make a purchase. Who made the purchase & what did they buy??? I agree with you the connection we get collecting ancient coins with people of the past is a bonus to one's collection.

Always fantastic inviews into the past through numismatics : thank you very much for your work ! Greatings from a Frenchman (passionate ancient coin collector, by the way) living since 1999 in Rome (more complicated actually), now 70 m away from Aurelian walls...

Recently watched a video from a U Toronto professor specializing in coins used in the British North American colonies. One of the sources he quoted, which was one of Canadas earliest numismatist focusing on the plethora of coins circulating around the colony. He stated that roman and even at least one Ancient Greek coin circulated in the colonies. They were extremely rare but did circulate. It is crazy to think about the longevity of these coins and how they managed to cross a whole ocean and be used a millennia and a half or more after their mintage

Man I love this Channel. This is good stuff

Seeing 5th century Vandals using a coin of Vespasian makes me wonder if anyone ever looked at it and decided to just keep it as some sort of lucky coin. I wonder how they would feel if they saw us collecting their currency, or if they did the same during their days to some extent

Wow this video was fascinating i have been thinking about this question for a while thanks for answering it

Loved this episode. Extremely informative. Prior to this, I'd assumed the next era just melted most of them.

If memory serves me right, some Roman Siliqua were shaved down for use as early Anglo-Saxon coins prior to King Alfred unifying the kingdoms.

That was a great video. Thank you for bringing so much fascinating history in this short presentation.

Thank you so much for answering my question. Loved this video ❤

Amazing video I have always asked myself this question!

I got a Trajan Decius double denari in change as a Nickel about 20 years ago😳. It's very rough, almost smooth but I still have it.

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for posting

I like how when talking about Charles IV. the image from Kingdom Come Deliverance is shown xd

An excellent video that satisfies a question I had in another video.

Great video! Channel has been a bit of an obsession of mine lately :D If you have the time or desire, would you mind explaining (in video or text form) when, why and how the coins switched the emperor's face from portrait to full front facing? Thanks!

Do you know any good place to read up on late lombardian coins? like past 900 ad. I cant really find much info about it

Thank you for creating this video. It actually answered so well to my question i had for the past 3 months. I study archaeology at university and really really want to connect my future work with coins from Roman Empire...

Very interesting video. Thank you.

Complimenti belle Monetine. Video spettacolare 🎉

Loved those Probus-like medieval coins!

When I was a kid we lived in Ethiopia - in the markets, you would often see old Maria Theresa Thalers being used. Farmers, especially, didn't trust paper notes or modern coins. The value of the Thalers was known & universally accepted. It was the same when we'd go to Kenya. Heck, when I was fighting in Kuwait, nearly every family we met had bags of Thalers as their savings. In mediaeval times, too - "currency exchanges" were just a matter of weighing coins (hundreds of paintings show it). So Roman coins would've circulated until modern times. In NYC British money was used as much as US money up until... shoot, sorry, but I know it was sometime between the 1850s-1870s. The "Shilling Side" of the street was where workers and artisans lived, the "Dollar Side" was where the wealthy did.

Probably the most interesting episode.

I fyou ever do a top ten of all your videos this would be near or at number 1 as it is SOOO fascinating. The only detail you didn't mention is that the bronze coins sold for scrap in rural areas of parts of Europe in the early 19th century were also used I believe until the 19th century fir ballast for seafaring ships!

Thank you for this delightful and informative distraction from the present. Much appreciated. ❤

Thanks Leo that was brilliant research from you.👍

I'm so glad I found your channel❤ love your work

Great video, we need more on it

Nice info.

Excellent video! Judging from the comments and your responses, it seems there's content for a second episode!

If you look at early American coinage, you see liberty presented as a personified deity, initially with the same cap that was the badge of liberty for manumitted slaves in Ancient Rome. And on the reverses, the eagle of Zeus from Ptolemy’s time.

Great episode

The thumbnail is a 10/10 from me 😂

Very good information very interesting

Always something which I never knew😊!

Melted down by goldsmiths?? I had no idea this was a horror video!

Someday I’ll look into the few I have and maybe they’ll jumpstart a whole new side of coin collecting for me.

very cool!

I would have thought Greschem’s Law would have taken the earlier coins out of circulation

For many decades and even centuries, these Imperial coins were the only good quality available for use.

Highly interesting :)

If the value of money is determined by its material, a Roman coin pays as good as any other coin.

Here -> 8:21, It's amazing how much better, more realistic, and more detailed ancient Roman coins look than English coins from the 900s AD. The details on the hair and beard especially. Roman coins can rival the 20th-century coins in terms of detail. It's remarkable. Coins from the 900s AD look crude and primitive. The face of the emperor looks very realistic and detailed. The king in the upper row looks like some ghoulish monster. The decline was real. Europe really went into the dark ages for 100s of years. Even the technology of making coins went in more crude, primitive designs due to a lack of technology.

If the coin is made of solid silver I could see a shopkeeper or merchant accepting it for its precious metal value and giving a farmer a few drinks at the tavern for example.

Better question: will US currency?

Bravo!

make a video on ROMAN EGYPTIAN COINS, ALEXANDRIA Please

Amazing how the Roman coins were of much higher quality of art than coins produced 1000 years later

Considering Byzantine was still around pretty sure it was

I wonder what it is that makes us choose the type of coins to collect. I love central/south american coins from late 1600s to the late 17th century, i also love the early US type coins. As a matter of fact i love british coins from the same time periods. Those coins just have the shape and designs that i love the most. Probably has to do with the technology of the time and the minting process and the culture of the time that makes them so cool to me. Ancients are amazing too, but i like the sharp details that coins from later eras have. UNTIL you get to modern coins that they design on computers and have infinite detail. Those coins seem lifeless to me. The new commemorative quarters... im not a fan. My dream ancient is probably an athenian decadrachm. the one with the eagles wings opened to his sides. But sadly i think those are extremely rare, like an octagonal panama pacific $50 or even rarer.

Unpopular Opinion: Rome had the best coins in the game

Gold is gold

Amazing Roman coins circulating in the middle ages.

📽️👍👍👍👍👍👏

To think what would be if the western empire never fell.

Second

Proud to be Barbarian!

first

Of course they did. It is not like people would have thrown their money away just because the empire stopped.

I thought youre talking about the fall of the Roman Empire in 1453.

Yes The value was the metal

Emperor of the Romans, not king.

What a delightful video! I’m glad RU-vid recommended it to me! 🪙🪙🪙