CHAP. ix. OF COINS. 



In the cabinets of medals are to be seen many 

 cased with a thin coat of silver over copper or 

 brass 1 . If this practice did not begin with 

 Commodus, which has been asserted, it prevailed 

 whilst Didius Julianus, who bought the imperial 

 dignity at an auction a few years after him, re- 

 tained his transient power. The money of Ca- 

 racalla is found to have more than half of it of 

 base metal, that of Alexander Severus contains 

 two-thirds of copper, and that coined under 

 Gallien exhibits only brass washed with silver 2 . 

 The debasing of the coin seems indeed to have 

 been most extensively adopted as a resource by 

 the worst of the monarchs, but may still be con- 

 sidered as evidence of a decrease of the precious 

 metals. This debasement' of the coin serves in 

 some measure to account for the increase of pay 

 to the soldiers whilst the consumption of the 

 precious metals was proceeding. Thus Macre- 

 sius wrote to the senate, that the augmentation 

 of the pay to the troops made by Caracalla 

 amounted to seventy millions of drachmae, or 

 about one million eight hundred thousand 

 pounds 3 . 



The zeal of M. Vaescovali and of Mr. Wm. 



1 See la science des medailles du Pere Joubert. Paris, 1750. 

 Page 59. 



2 Savotte, part 2, cap. 12, and Journal des Savans du 28 

 Juillet, 1681, sur une decouverte de 5000 medailles. 



3 Montesquieu,, Grandeur et Decadence des Remains, c. 16. 



