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When the solidus was reintroduced by Constantine I (r. 306–337) in 312 AD, permanently replacing the aureus as the gold coin of the Roman Empire, it was struck at a rate of 72 to a Roman pound of pure gold, each coin weighing twenty-four Greco-Roman carats, or about 4.5 grams of gold per coin.
It was divided into 12 Roman ounces. Sometimes the word libra was used together with the word pondo "in weight", e.g. libram pondo "a pound in weight" (Livy, 3.29); but often pondo was used alone; e.g. auri quinque pondo "five (pounds) in weight of gold" (Cicero, pro Cluentio 179). Hence the word pondo by itself came to mean "pound(s)". [25]
Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. [1] From its introduction during the Republic, in the third century BC, through Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomination, and composition. A feature was the inflationary debasement and replacement of coins over ...
In Western Europe, the solidus was the main gold coin of commerce from late Roman times to Pepin the Short's currency reform in the 750s, which introduced the silver-based pound-shilling-penny system. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the solidus also functioned as a unit of weight equal to 1 ⁄ 72 Roman pound (approximately 4.5 grams).
The basic copper coin, the as, was to weigh 1 Roman pound. This was a large cast coin, and subdivisions of the as were used. The "pound" (libra, etc.) continued to be used as a currency unit, and survives e.g. in the British monetary system, which still uses the pound, abbreviated as £. 211 BC: Introduction: 4.55 g: 95–98%: 1 ⁄ 72 pound.
A currency symbol or currency sign is a graphic symbol used to denote a currency unit. Usually it is defined by a monetary authority, such as the national central bank for the currency concerned. A symbol may be positioned in various ways, according to national convention: before, between or after the numeric amounts: €2.50, 2,50€ and 2 50.
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Roman Republican currency is the coinage struck by the various magistrates of the Roman Republic, to be used as legal tender.In modern times, the abbreviation RRC, "Roman Republican Coinage" originally the name of a reference work on the topic by Michael H. Crawford, has come to be used as an identifying tag for coins assigned a number in that work, such as RRC 367.