Subaeratus

Subaeratus (plural Subaerati ) were silver coins with a core made of base metal (" sub " Latin for; underneath " aes ", Latin for bronze), the flots of which therefore did not consist of a uniform alloy. If the core is made of iron instead of bronze or copper, it is also referred to as subferrati ( ferrum, lat. Iron). At first glance, these coins had a face value , which, however, did not correspond to their real current value .

History and manufacture

They were made in Greece a short time after coinage began in the 7th century BC. A particularly large number of Subaerati were made during the heyday of the Roman Empire, when the silver denarius was still the backbone of the Roman monetary system. Since the 3rd century the Denar detaching Antoniniane (nominal worth Doppeldenaren), however, contained no principle core of a baser metal, but the whole coin consisted of an alloy with decreasing over time silver content. Even later, when they hardly contained any silver, these antoninians were briefly immersed in a silver bath. However, these coins are not called Subaerati. Rather, these are clad coins, the core of which was mostly made of copper or bronze and whose surfaces ( obverse and lapel ) were provided with thin fine silver or eutectic silver-copper sheets. These silver sheets were usually applied in a thermal soldering process with the exclusion of oxygen before the actual embossing. In terms of appearance, these coins initially differed little from their fully-fledged silver copies. However, they were often thinner and significantly lighter. When the Subaerati were spread thicker, they had a lower specific gravity. Because of their low silver content, the Subaerati today usually have a darker patina than the full-fledged specimens.

Subaeratus (left) and normal denarius (right), both with a portrait of Hadrian

use

Subaerati were often private contemporary forgeries. Occasionally they were also issued as official coins in times of economic or military hardship and are therefore to be viewed as emergency or inflation money. Subaerati were also made in the border regions during quieter times to remedy the lack of official Roman money. These include, above all, the so-called Limesfalsa (= Limes forgeries ), which were used as replacement change.

literature

• Peter Hammer, Heinz Klemm: Metallurgical investigation of Roman denarii with conclusions on their production technology . In: Journal for Archeology , Berlin (East) 1982, pp. 53–93.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Franz Mittag, Greek Numismatics - An Introduction, Heidelberg 2016, page 23, ISBN 978-3-938032-85-5
2. ↑ Florian Haymann, Collecting Ancient Coins, Regenstauf 2016, page 113, ISBN 978-3-86646-132-1