Collecting Graded Roman Coins

Like the coinage of ancient Greece, Roman coins were mainly struck in silver, gold and bronze. The Roman Empire covers the period from the accession of Augustus in 27 B.C. to the loss of the European parts of the empire, especially Rome, by A.D. 476.

As economic conditions changed over time, which reflected the changing fortunes of the Roman empire, the intrinsic values of these coins were debased by reducing their weight. Sometimes the weights were later restored during periods of reform, but that typically did not last long.

The core denominations of the early Roman Empire were the copper as, silver denarius and gold aureus. The as was first struck in the earliest days of the empire and was used for more than 500 years.

The main precious metals coins were the silver denarius and gold aureus. Those coins were the backbone of the monetary system of the empire, and they were issued in large quantities. Denarii were popular for daily transactions, including the payment of wage with one denarii the going rate for a day’s labor . They initially weight about 4 grams but that continued to decrease over time.

Gold aurei were worth 25 denarii and were used typically for higher-level transactions because of their higher value and greater intrinsic worth. They initially weighed 7.6 to 8 grams, which decreased to as low as 7.1 grams over times.

For almost 250 years this system remained largely unchanged apart from reductions in the weight of coins, but in A.D. 215 Emperor Caracalla introduced a new denomination, the double denarius, which is also known as the antoninianus. It weighed 1.5 times that of the denarius but was intended to represent twice its value, which is another example of monetary debasement. Bronze eventually replaced more and more of the silver content over time. By A.D. 241 it replaced the denarius as the key denomination.

The empire then entered an extended period of trouble, which led to the weight of the gold aureus being inconsistent and low. Also, the purity of the double denarius dropped to less than 2%.

The Emperor Diocletian, who instituted many reforms to taxation, the military and administration of the provinces, sought to tame rising inflation by getting rid of the old denominations except for the gold aureus coins. He added a new high-purity silver coin known as an argenteus as well as a heavy copper coin that was alloyed with a small amount of silver often called a follis, but the more correct term for it is nummus. Over time, the argenteus was hoarded or used in trade, while the nummus was used a great deal but saw its weight reduced by over two-thirds to the point that it contained almost no silver.

There are many other denominations of Roman coins, but these are the most common and well known ones and numerous examples still exist today because they were struck in such large quantities for use in an empire that spanned such a large area.

Ancient Roman Coin Value

Many longtime collectors of Roman coins who have developed expertise in the area prefer not to have their coins graded so they can hold them, but there are advantages to purchasing graded examples, especially if you are newer to this area of collecting.

In particular, a graded example comes with a guarantee of the coin’s authenticity and the slab can also protect the coin and help to maintain its condition.

Ancient coins are graded differently than other coins. They are graded using adjectival terms like fine, very fine and extremely fine. The scale goes from poor to gem mint state.

NGC’s Ancient Coin Division is the leader in grading Roman coins.

The first ancient graded coins only used those terms, but now they consider both surface (how it has survived with time) and strike (how well it was made), which are each evaluated on a 5-point scale used to arrive at the net descriptive grade.

Most collectors look for ancient coins that grade at least very fine or extremely fine, which are the most widely collected grades. But overall, it is the eye appeal of a graded coin that really matters more than its numerical or descriptive grade.

Today it is possible for collectors on a budget to acquire graded examples of many different ancient Roman coins for less than $100 dollars and many others for only a little more than that.

Roman coins for sale

We have hundreds of NGC graded Roman silver coins for sale, including over two dozen silver denarii coins featuring those of rulers such as Marcus Aurelius, Comodus, Hadrian, Trajan Caracalla and others, including some raw coins and bronze coins too.

While many of these coins are very affordable today, even when graded by NGC, in the future as more people become interested in collecting Roman coins, values for such pieces may increases substantially since there will be greater demand for the existing supply of coins.