Ancient Coins: Roman Hyperinflation
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- Опубліковано 26 бер 2021
- The Roman Empire suffered with a long and gruelling process of hyperinflation that slowly but surely eroded away at the foundations of the Empire, with many saying the uncontrolled inflation that plagued the Empire was one of the causes for its downfall.
Today, lets explore how did inflation happen on ancient times, draw some parallels with today´s economic situation around the world, have a look at a lot of coins and their stories, and maybe learn a thing of two about sound money.
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This is top-tier youtube content as far as I'm concerned. What a great history lesson!
Regarding 9:59, hoarding good coins and spending instead bad coins is known as Gresham's Law.
Very good point! Bad money drives good money out of circulation.
Only if both are required to be accepted as legal tender
@@blakes8288 and force to be of equal value
@@blakes8288 Let's say a country has a silver coin worth $10, and a gold coin worth $100. A person wants to purchase an item worth $100. Would Gresham's Law apply here? As in, would people rather spend 10 silver coins or 1 gold coin, causing the gold coins to be hoarded and stay out of circulation? I can hardly find a good explanation of Gresham's Law, I'm hoping you can help me.
@@awesomeme5336 People would absolutely spend the silver coins and hoard the gold ones, I would. Assuming current (04/2024) precious metal values, if both coins were the same size _in exemplo_ 5g, the silver coin would be similar to scrap value (~$6.5) with a bit of government edge to prevent export at opportunistic times. However, the 5g gold coin would be worth ~$550 as scrap gold on the open market, so while only being worth 10 silver coins at exchange one gold coin is worth 55 silver coins as scrap in that example.
I have a silvered antoninianus from the emperor Aurelian that surprisingly has a pretty well preserved, glossy sheen of silver (especially on the reverse that shows Sol Invictus standing over Palmyrene prisoners) despite the rapid debasement that had occurred throughout the Third Century Crisis. I bet it would've looked even more convincing as a silver coin 1750 years ago when it was new. Even still it's one of my favorite ancient coins that I have in my collection for the design and history behind it.
I really enjoy looking for the mid-late3rd century Roman coins that still have good size and respectable silver. Learning about which Mints had the best to offer on certain Emperor's. And by far it's usually the rich east Mints
that reminded me debasement of denars in early medieval Bohemian kingdom (duchy), when coins at the end were also practically silvered copper, because in that time the only monetary income of a king (or duke at that time) was minting of new coins (monetary tax was still not a thing), it was also problem in other early medieval countries, but Czech dukes took it to the max
Its fascinating to see the number of debasement and tricks monarchs would try to pull to squeeze every last bit of purchasing power once they had already started debasing the currency. The Iberian peninsula is also very well known historically for that, as late medieval coins basically had testimonial amounts of silver, and inflation levels reached percentages per year similar to those achieved on the 21st century.
Regarding 10:29, An acid solution can also be used to leach silver from high purity silver coins and then be furttively spent back into circulation without arousing too much suspicion as long the adulterated coins are not grossly underweight or overtly obvious that they had been tampered with other than the normal wear as expected from coin to coin contact abrasions. Thereafter the dissolved silver in solution can be recovered by chemical precipitation as follows: If Nitric Acid is used to dissolve the silver, then the silver is converted into silver nitrate. Then by adding salt into the nitric acid solution, silver nitrate is converted into silver chloride. Then by adding Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) and adding sugar, then the silver chloride is reduced to powdered silver. The silver powder is then melted down into bullion. Other acids that can be used to dissolve silver are Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, or Aqua Regia (which is a highly corrosive combination of nitric acid & hydrochloride acid).
The debasement of Roman currency is an interesting story, certainly some lessons to be learned there.
More people should see this video . This is inflation 101
Hard to say which one led to which. Did the inflation lead to the deterioration of the empire or did the deterioration lead to the inflation. My guess is they went hand in hand. Both feeding into the other.
A sick society does sick thing. I’d suspect morals/principles erode first, this leads to poor decision making.
I found your channel from Toldinstone's videos on the subject. Interesting stuff. The only problem though is that your microphone volume seems very low compared to most other channels. Good video, thanks.
Sorry about that, Indeed this issue has only been solved on the last couple of months or so with a new setup.
Im seeing wth youtube if there is a boost volume feature, in the meantime, please crank the volume up :)
Your channel was recommended by Mario from the UA-cam channel Maneco64. What a nice episode! Very informative and I really enjoyed viewing all of the coins as you took us through the different emperors and historical lesson. Thank you!
Im loving this channel, watching every single video. Extremely underrated. Very interesting and well explained, with beautiful footage of every coin and correct information. Looking forward to watching your channel grow a lot
I’d love to test ancient coins on one of those giant $30,000 XRF machines
That's would indeed be super cool!
The bad thing about XRF scans, however, is that it not always shows the exact composition of the coin, particularly so with the tendency of the Romans artificially enriching with silver many debased coins's surfaces. Accurate measurement of roman coins generally requires intrusive sampling of its core for accurate metal composition.
Very informative as always! It's also interesting to note that the emperor Postumus (usurper during Gallienus, 260-269) produced higher quality coins than those of Gallienus. Although i don't know the silver purity of Postumus coins, they at least appear high purity silver, whereas those of Gallienus have lost their appearance for some time. Also, Postumus coins are great for starting collections as they are really abundant and affordable.
Small comment: the antoninianus at 09:35 is from emperor Elagabalus, not Caracalla ;) They are easy to mistake, as both emperors used 'Antoninus' on the obverse. Lastly, i hope you'll complete your antoninianus series with Aemilianus and Hostilianus, they are tough to find :-)
Great eye for detail Luuk! This is indeed Elagabalus. Im still on the hunt for a Caracalla antoninianus, they are just a liiittle bit above the price range Im comfortable paying in auctions, so its the waiting game for me.
Indeed, Aemilianus and Hostiliaus are hard to find!
@@ClassicalNumismatics Patience and luck, that's the name of the game for rare coins! And once in a while lady Fortuna will smile at us :-)
The fact that they were fighting over 10 percent and much less sliver is a very sad state of affairs what were wages like by this time I’d imagine that a lot of hack sliver and private minted coins flooded in
Great, as always! Small point that came up twice I think: Romans *did* have systems of credit, banking, equity, etc. (E.g., Cicero didn't actually give Crassus wagonloads of millions of Sesterce for his house, but a tablet or slip of paper archived away somewhere.) I don't know if credit/banking were still functioning well in the 3rd century (or maybe based entirely on the solidus or other measures of gold), but I believe even ordinary citizens and businesses had access in the early Empire and Republic, and in the Byzantine period. (Not sure about the crazy middle period, which is your main interest here, but I'm sure someone knows.)
Fascinating to watch this video, holding a "silver" Antoninianus of Aurelian in my hand, which was one of a lot of six uncleaned coins I bought as my first foray into collecting ancient Roman coins. There is still a definite sheen of silver on the obverse, while the rougher reverse has XXI as part of the inscription.
What a gem of a channel i found!
Very interesting. A perfect example of how the more things change, the more they remain the same. (?).
yo, that first Gallienus you showed is so cool. I love war trophies. This might be your best video so far. I love it.
Thanks! Im surprised with how it took off, with over 1k views in a day. Its great to know people are also interested on more technical aspects of numismatics, instead of just looking at pretty coins.
This speaks volumes to the kind of cultured people that watch these videos, and it is a great push for me to make more content :)
Never stop making these videos. 😉
No sir, I wont 😀
This video has aged like fine wine.
Don’t know how you don’t have more subs, but I love this channel and you inspired me to start my numismatic journey. Going to start this week on MA-shops for something Roman republic with decent quality! or Greek if I can’t find something that jumps out at me.
That's amazing! Lets us know what you decide to go for, good luck :)
@@ClassicalNumismatics been looking for hours hahah hard to decide, trying to look between the $200-450 range tetradrachm and denarius, any suggestions?
Very interesting! Keep doing this great videos!!
Excellent
Thank you so much for this amazing breakdown. The more I learn about ancient roman monetary history, the more I want to get started on collecting. Please don’t stop creating wonderful content!
New favorite channel! Excellent information and very well done.
Thanks ✌
I thought that Discord ping @ 1:58 was mine 😂😂😂
And obviously it was a ping from the Ancient Coins server haha
Another great video!
History is repeating itself once again as we speak....
Great research and presentation. Thanks!
Thanks! I've made it with lots of care for you all :)
I'm sawing all my coins in half.
nooooooo :O
If you do that you will never run out of money.
I'm old enough to remember when copper and silver coins were real. They probably weren't 95%, but they were still thought as copper and silver by the public. Small change would be referred to as "coppers" and we had an understanding of a "silver sixpence".
Old coins with a higher silver content were still in circulation (e.g. sixpence, shillings, half crowns etc) but they disappeared while I was still quite young.
These days our coins are all made of cheap alloys and even the weight of those is shrinking.
Politicians can resist everything except temptation, it seems.
Thank you for the history. It was great to see the actual coins.
Yes, we can! I don't like the idea of fiat currencies and creating money from thin air by leaving future generations with even larger debt to pay...
Some level of FIAT and a certain leveraging have been responsible for some quick boost on economic activity and overall growth. Unfortunately there is a very thin line between a bit of leveraging that's still based on real assets and real growth and an overleveraged society that is completely addicted to debt.
The difference between currency debasement by the Romans and over printing today is Roman's only had a spotty understanding economics while today we make the same mistakes despite knowing so much more.
That is right! And if we make the same mistake knowing about the consequences, we can be pretty sure our central banks are either hopelessly incompetent or downright fraudulent.
I love the coin history lessons.
Thank you, Im glad you like it! Its interesting to learn history through coins :)
Great video and economics lesson. I own many of these coins and am now more interested in their actual silver content. Can you do an in depth video about Carthage sometime?
Its on the books! If you want to get a quick fix on some Carthaginian coinage, my video on Gold coins features a gold Stater of Carthage and my Tetradrachm video of Sicily shows a Tetradrachm struck by Carthaginian authorities to pay for its mercenaries. You should check it out :)
Very informative . Well researched. Appreciate the effort.
Thank you! Im glad people find these informative :)
Adam smith: all money is a belief. A nation is not made wealthy by shiny metals.but its enriched economic prosperity by its people
Very good video , bravo.
Great information!
Thanks! Hope this video serves as much as a numismatic journey and as a cautionary tale.
collections very nice, thanks you for share
I love your youtube channel! it's The best find in 2022!
Thats fantastic to hear! Thanks for the support :)
In later empire people used old coins that have more silver with the value adjusted? And it was like a black market because the government would took away the old coins to make more with less silver?
There’s nothing, like holding a 90% silver Morgan dollar in your hand!
Solid, palpable, REAL money
Me: wooo fascinating !
Me at 18:39 : that is not a poop right? I mean it is fascinating but.... man, the Roman coin just got debased so hard
BTW thank you for the wonderful series!
Can you tell me how much silver is in the Trajan denarius AD 98-117 ?
Around 85%
@@ClassicalNumismatics Thx C.N.
🤜🏻🤛🏼
So can the percentage of silver also reflect how powerful an empire was? If so after the fall of Rome, did other empires have high silver percentage in their currencies. If so, which empires?
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Very interesting, thanks. 👍
Good video
Thanks!
Thank you very much for the support :)
I feel like a very crucial detail was left out, and that is that silver ceased to be the imperial currency standard during the reign of Constantine with the switch to gold. The gold Solidus was used to pay the army(or at least their matched value of the solidus) while taxes were collected in kind. During the reign of Anastasius, the economy was again doing well, and taxes were again collected in coin.
The Solidus remained pure, remained the international standard, and was not debased until the 11th century. I believe it's where we get the word "soldier."
So, obviously, the obverse:
US coins worth more in metal value than spending power is a very strong sign of weak Fiat currency.
The value of a copper penny against how much it costs to be produced is a clear sign of that.
The very same switching in its composition from Copper to plated zinc also makes it clear.
@@ClassicalNumismatics
Exactly.
And the current coin shortage in US a predictable recall.
PS, I studied at Universidad de Granada🤓
Ud. Suena Español.
¿Viene de España?
@@boomxmilizexpathacks9440 Soy brasileño, pero llevo en España ya hace unos 5 años :)
The U.S. Penny and Nickle metal content are now worth more money than thier face value.
Great article. Not really Gallienus’s fault. However. The army was massively defeated, His father was the Persian ruler’s footstool, and Germanic tribes were coming over the border. What was he going to do? Not pay the army?
Thats true. I like Gallienus, he did what he could, he certainly could have done a LOT worse, and he was a victim of the circumstances.
My dad told me that in the 1940's a pack of cigarettes was a nickel and so was a beer a t bone steak at a restaurant with all the fixings was a dollar.
In 235AD, around two denarii could pay a roman soldier on active duty for a day.
In 335AD, a miliarensis, a coin worth around 2 days wages for a soldier was worth a THOUSAND (theoretical) denarii, as the original denarius itself was debased to oblivion, and became a unit of account.
Our politicians dont learn. Or maybe they do learn and are aware of inflation, but they keep at it because it lines their pockets.
Great information..salam numismatik 👍
Thank-you! glad you like it :)
to be a politician, studying history should be compulsory. Sadly they never learn from history & keep on repeating the same mistakes
The political class is a mere reflection of the current state of the population.
If people arent taught in their own homes, from their own families, practical knowledge about life, values such as honesty, and how to be a functional human being, we get what we get.
Maneco64 sent me here. 😊
Remember until 1983 France had a silver 10 francs coin....
How the mighty have fallen
Mario sent me, veni vidi vici
18:31 coin minter go brrrrrrr
Hammer blows at the mint go ClangClangClangClang!
coming from mario menacco64
Mario is a very knowledgeable guy and gives really good advise, Im glad he likes my videos :)
@@ClassicalNumismatics actually you are doing a fantastic job i listened to your video checked the playlist of the channel subscribed and shared immediately the channel to friends😀😀😀
dirham I think is etymologically linked to the drachma
That is correct, sorry about the mistake.
The gold DINAR descends from the Denarius.
@@ClassicalNumismatics excellent video though. obrigado! and imho now is worse than then for many reasons. increased complexity and opacity of the monetary system as opposed to the roman empire, with more tricks up the sleeves of socialist central planners with two left hands; nobody understands a fucking thing about the global monetary system anymore. higher speed of the unravelling of the chain of events thus less time for markets and agents to digest developments and adjust toward equilibrium. also, an insane political system called democracy that ensures all politicians in power will opt for 'gain now, pain later' policies. America has been a dominant world power for about a hundred years and already its knees are shaking...
It's interesting that you mentioned that the fiat system is based on the stability of political systems. Another way of saying that is that credit is based on the ability to tax citizens in perpetuity. But in the end I don't think you can compare the Roman system of coinage to the modern age of digitzed bank accounts. We're going to have a one-world digitzed monetary system that will be based on totalitarian control of every individual. That's the only way to stave off the inevitable collapse of fractional reserve, debt-based, fiat currency.
Great video, Thanks, but I wish you would turn up the audio. Could barely hear your commentary on my iPad at maximum volume. Would like to see more videos on this type and other ancient silver and bronze denominations. 👍😊
Sorry about this, the volume on my older videos is indeed low. Please increase the volume in these ones while youtube doesnt come up with some sort of boost feature :)
Thankfully this issue seems to be resolved on my latest entries.
And now we plate even less valuable metals with copper.
Our chickens are coming home to roost now with current inflation.
With each passing day I realize the "Cash is trash" saying is completely true.
Great channel!
Yes, makes sense!
The Yugoslav currency used to be called “Dinar” when Yugoslavia was together. Subbed ✅
RAM ON!.
Baaaaah!
Roman denarius becoming uncanny
HAH! That would be a nice meme
Hi. First of all I just want to say that Im enjoing the content of your channel. Your videos are very informative.
Second. I would like your opinion on a coin that a few years ago a friend of the family gave to me. Both sides are very spent but its still possible to see the images and some letters. Is their any way to send you a picture of the coin for your
appreciation?
With modern day situation, its not the coins/currency themselves being debased, its the commodities backing them. When you can grow unearthly amounts of crops cheaply but most of it is ruined/destroyed/low food content, you get debasement on the back end. Add to it more modern currency being increased, its like driving fast on a one way street. Slow it down... widen the street or hopeful a side street.
Hello, is it possible to have a text in subtitles, or a presentation on paper because I do not practice English correctly!
thank you in advance your presentations are very good
youtube has an auto translate feature. It is not perfect, but it might help you understand.
Thank you
What a terrific documentary on fiat currency…
Wonderful coins. Greetings from Ukraine!
How much silver in Diocletian Argenteus coin ? How much silver in Julian II siligua coin ?
I did not see answers for questions 1) How much silver in Diocletian “ARGENTEUS” coin ? 2) How much silver in Julian II “SILIQUA” coin ?
What is kind of Roman coin called Centenionalis and billon double maiorina silver contents ?
This video was not meant to answer these questions, in any case, I will answer you here:
The Argenteus was 90% pure, and weight around 3.2 grams
The siliqua was also 90% pure, and around Julian's reign it weight around 1.9 grams.
@@ClassicalNumismatics Thank you How about double Maiorina silver contest ? Back to hyperinflation real silver coins are still in hipper inflationary world like Argenteus and Siliqua !!!
Rampant inflation is bad, but so is deflation: if productivity increases and the amount of money is fixed, then the same laws that dictate the increase of price in inflation would also create a decrease in price, or a decrease in production to sustain the price. In the latter scenario, there would simply be fewer things to go around for everyone, and the people rich in currency would be priviiged. People who have money would have an incentive to refrain from spending to let their money appreciate in value. The question of inflation is, in my view, better phrased as one of finding the correct amount of money that needs to exist in an economy, and governing how it moves from owner to owner.
Pretty much. Modern economics suggests that inflation actually helps economic growth, as long as it's kept to a couple of percent annually. Of course it's hard to control precisely.
Hyperinflation is really bad. Deflation is really bad, even at fairly low levels.
The Great Depression is a fine example of money deflation.
Yes,a little inflation is not bad like in early Roman Imperial Times 1st and 2nd centuries but got completely out of hand by the 3rd century and hastened the fall of Rome.
Bitcoin fixes this
debasement is debasement - just a little easier to do now
I wish this wasn't so quiet. Can barely hear what they're saying.
turn the volume up :)
RIVETING VIDEO.
What is old
is new again.
History might not repeat itself, but it often rhymes
@@ClassicalNumismatics
Indeed!
Lately I feel like an armchair historian whose seat is too close to the fire.
In its defense, money has always been based on a mass delusion of abstraction. There's not a dime's worth of difference between thinking a piece of gold has value and thinking a piece of copper or paper does.
If human beings were machine-like beings that saw everything in front of them with a completely analytical view, yes. A CNC machine will mill and transform a slab of gold just like it will a piece of copper.
We are talking about an animal that cannot live without being in a social context, is primarily emotional and can only think rationally and analytically when taught from a young age. Abstract thinking is a part of human basic psyche. Denying abstraction is denying human nature.