Uncia (unit)
The Uncia (Mz. Unciae), ( Latin for one twelfth , German about ounce , in the original Old Latin meaning as "unit" related to the Latin unus ) corresponds to the twelfth of an ace , an ancient Roman unit of coin and weight.
The uncia is the basic unit on which the higher-order denominations are based, e.g. B. As.
The coin weights of the bronze coins As and Uncia were subject - in contrast to the commercial weights of the same name for goods - to a constant weight reduction due to inflationary processes - beginning in the course of the 3rd century BC. It began a decoupling of the increasingly lighter coin weights from the roughly constant goods weights of the same name. Coins with the name “Uncia” or “As” were finally created, but they no longer weighed an Uncia or an As of old weight. Similar processes took place later with the weight mark and the coin “ mark ” or with the lira .
The As with the (double) Janus head in the cast was reduced from around 300 g to around 40 g in the relatively short period of time from around 289 to 211 BC. In Rome, which was expressed directly in the coin weights of the cast and minted coins such as As and Uncia and their multiples and parts. In later centuries the “As” coin only weighed 10 g after several reductions in the base of the coin .
According to the coin devaluations, the Uncia follows the Ace , but formally remains the twelfth part of the Roman pound ( libra with originally about 327 grams = As in the Libral Standard or further reduced in the later Semilibral Standard).
The Münz-Uncia shows around 211 BC On the obverse the head of the Roma with helmet or the Bellona , on the lapel the prora with the words "Roma" on the coins made in Rome and a possible mint master's mark . Other motifs were chosen later.
The Uncia has a value point located on either side; the Diuncia ( Sextans ) with the Mercurius image has 2 value points, the Triens (4 Unciae) with the Minerva image has 4 value points etc.
The half ounce is the semuncia , which is often marked with Jupiter and the quarter ounce is the quartuncia , which was marked with the image of Hercules . In both Uncia parts, however, there is no direct value in the embossing.
The coins As, the single and multiple Uncia and from about 211 BC The newly added silver denarii , quinaries and sesterces were the first coins of mankind to be provided with dots and alphanumeric coin denominations - in addition to figurative images of the respective coin type. In later decades, however, the coin denominations were often dropped again.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Kluge , Alfred Götze : Etymological dictionary of the German language . 20th ed., Ed. by Walther Mitzka , De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1967; Reprint (“21st unchanged edition”) ibid 1975, ISBN 3-11-005709-3 , p. 807 ( oz ).