coinage, Roman

Rome was late to adopt coinage compared to the rest of the Mediterranean. The history of Roman coinage is conventionally divided into three main periods: the early Republican phase, with elements of struck and cast coinage of aes, silver, and Italian and Hellenistic traditions intertwined; the phase of the silver denarius, from c. 212 bce through to its collapse in the 3rd century ce, supplemented with an array of metals and denominations; followed by the Late Roman coinage system, primarily of gold and aes with very little silver. Important iconographic developments occurred throughout the seven centuries of Roman coinage, accompanied by many metallurgical and metrological changes to the physicality of coins, impacting and being impacted by economic, monetary, and non-monetary use and function.