VALUE OF ROMAN MONEY*. 



GRONOVIUS'S estimate of the value of Roman money is 

 vitiated by two principal errors : his doctrine that 100 denarii 

 went to the pound weight of silver, *a doctrine connected with 

 his theory that the proper and direct meaning of sestertium is 

 two pounds and a half of silver, but which is contradicted both 

 by testimony and by the denarii, which like the bricks in 

 Richard II. are alive to this day to witness to the contrary ; 

 and his confounding the pound Troy with the Roman pound. 

 The errors tend to balance, one making the denarius too little 

 in value, and the other making our currency of too small value; 

 but his result is of course mere haphazard, to say nothing of his 

 neglecting the question of alloy. 



The basis of the calculations in the Dictionary of Antiquities 

 is much more satisfactory, but the calculations themselves are 

 wrong. The articles Sestertius and Denarius do not take into 

 account that our shilling circulates as a counter above its in- 

 trinsic value. The value of the denarius is determined by com- 

 paring its weight of fine silver with that of the shilling. Now 

 as our coinage since 1816 is at the rate of 665. to the pound, 

 the result is the same as if the price of silver had been taken 

 to be 66^. per ounce standard, which certainly is not its real 

 price. The rate of coinage was purposely fixed above the 

 variations of the bullion market to prevent melting. Sixty- 

 two pence is the price commonly assumed in calculating the par 

 of exchange, and is rather a large average price. Taking the 

 data given in the article Denarius, and this price of silver, the 

 denarius of the end of the Republic is worth (not 8'6245<#. 

 as it is there made) but 8'099d., or in round numbers, not S^d. 

 but Sd. 



The error will be nearly the same in the value of the later 

 denarius. 



* Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Vol. i. p. 92. 



