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Silver Denarius of Marcus Antonius

On this side of the legionary denarius we can clearly see the two standards vexillae and the legionary eagle aquila. These coins are considered "money of necessity" by modern numismatists because they were struck especially to pay Marc Antony's troops rather than for general circulation. Please see the obverse of this coin for a detailed discussion of the circumstances of their issue.

The striking of these coins involved a disturbing practice that was to cause trouble for the Romans time and time again. The metal was not pure silver, but debased metal containing a considerable amount of copper. It seems that our popular, well liked hero Marc Antony was pretty good at wooing foreign queens and making grandiose plans to rule the Roman world. He knew how to party hearty and spend someone else's money, but was not so good at managing his own. In order to pay his troops, he had to resort to such cheating measures as debasing the currency. He was not the first nor the last Roman leader to resort to this practice, and it would bring the Roman Empire close to economic ruin in the latter part of the Third Century


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