Long Table 146. New Thoughts on Rome’s Oldest Coins
Channel: American Numismatic Society
Date: 2023-07-14

The last years have seen a number of key advances in the study of the earliest Roman coins. Seth Bernard, professor at the University of Toronto, will present this recent scholarship and provide an up-to-date picture of pre-denarius coinage (ca. 300–211 BCE). Several newly published hoards and archaeological finds help to refine the coinage’s chronological evolution, from the period of the Samnite wars to Rome’s first overseas expeditions against Carthage. Professor Bernard will focus on several important turning points in Rome’s coin production from their earliest didrachms and heavy cast bronze issues to the creation of an integrated, multi-metallic coinage system. The early Roman coinage not only reveals its own intrinsic qualities, but serves as a critical index for understanding the complex nature of “Middle Republican” society during Rome’s initial phases of imperial expansion.