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inferior both in weight and in beauty to the golden coins which 
were struck under the Republic and Early Emperors. The 
Emperors usually impressed on their coins their own image. 
This was first done by Julius Cesar according to the decree of 
the Senate. Money was coined in the Temple of Juno Monéta, 
whence the word money. 
It will, perhaps, be well for me at this point in my lecture 
to say a few words on the depreciation of coin. 
In ail ages the depreciation and adulteration of coin has 
been a favourite method among rulers of countries to increase 
the value of their treasures, and to pay their debts with less 
money than they have borrowed. The Roman As at first 
weighed 1 lb. of brass, but in the 1st Punic War, on account of 
the scarcity of money, Asses were struck weighing only 2 oz. or 
i of lb., which passed for the same value as those weighing 
12 0z. had done; “ whence,” says Pliny, “the Republic gained 
5 sixths and thus discharged its debt.” The weight of the As 
was afterwards again reduced, till at length it only weighed 
4 oz. From every lb. of silver were coined 100 denarii, so that 
at first a pound of silver was equal toa thousand pounds of 
brass, whence we may judge of the scarcity of silver at that 
time in Rome. But afterwards the case was altered, for when 
the weight of the As was diminished, it bore the same propor- 
tion to the Denarius as before, till it was reduced to 1 oz., and 
then a Denarius passed for 16 Asses, except in military pay, in 
which it continued to pass for 10 Asses, at least under the 
Republic, for in the time of Tiberius it appears that no 
_ exception was made. The weight of silver money also varied, 
and was different under the Emperors from what it had been 
under the Republic. 
In England, also, the Sovereigns have found it convenient 
from time to time to tamper with the coin of the realm. Thus 
a Pound sterling or twenty shillings originally weighed 1 lb. of 
silver, whence its name. But in 1351, Edward III, distressed 
by his debts, adopted this mode of paying his creditors with 
less money than he had borrowed from them. He ordered 1 lb. 
of silver to be coined into 266 silver pennies, instead of 240 
