Description

• The Antoninianus was a Roman silver coin used from the 3rd to the 5th centuries AD. It was initially worth two denarii, but was later devalued to one. The Antoninianus was named after Antoninus Pius, who introduced it in AD 21. The coin featured the bust of the emperor on the obverse and a reverse with various designs, including military scenes and personifications of the empire. In the 4th century, the Antoninianus began to be made with increasingly debased silver, culminating in the issuance of coins made entirely of bronze in the 5th century.
• The first silver coins were minted in Lydia in Asia Minor around 600 BCE though its use for coinage at scale can really be attributed to the Greeks, with silver Obols and Drachms. Roman silver coinage included the Denarius in the 3rd century BC which came to be the backbone of Roman Republican and early Empire monetary system. This was replaced in the 3rd century AD by the double denarius which is generally referred to as an Antoninianus, denoted by the emperor's image with a radiate crown. A later Roman silver coin of the 4th century AD was the Siliqua. Silver has been used for coinage throughout history because it is durable, malleable, and has a relatively low melting point. It is also abundant enough to create coins but rare enough so that not everyone can produce them. Silver is also valuable enough so that it can easily be exchanged for goods and services.