Posted 07/07/2018 01:22 am
Claudius is not the only ruler for whom denarii are scarce. Denarii of Caligula are also difficult to come by. Denarii are available for both of these rulers but one must be prepared to pay for them. There are plenty of theories as to why these denarii are scarce but the truth is we shall never know.
One of these theories is (as Finn states above) that Tiberius minted so many denarii that subsequent emperors Caligula and Claudius did not have to mint very many in order to keep the empire running. The monetary reform of Nero is another popular theory. Nero needed money badly. He changes the denarii in 2 ways: he reduced the overall weight and he reduced the fineness of the silver. According to Gresham's law bad money drives out the good. That is, people hoarded the purer and heavier silver pieces but widely spent the lesser value denarii. Therefore the denarii of Caligula and Claudius seemed to disappear. Of course the problem with this argument is that there are still many denarii of Tiberius around, so why were these not driven out of circulation. It is possible that Tiberius minted so many denarii that even Nero's reforms could not completely drive them out of circulation.
This is however all speculation for as I said above we will never know the true answer.
If you are looking for denarii of Nero try finding the pre-reform denarii. Even some post reform denarii of Nero are scarce to rare, but the pre reform denarii of Nero are much more rare.
One of these theories is (as Finn states above) that Tiberius minted so many denarii that subsequent emperors Caligula and Claudius did not have to mint very many in order to keep the empire running. The monetary reform of Nero is another popular theory. Nero needed money badly. He changes the denarii in 2 ways: he reduced the overall weight and he reduced the fineness of the silver. According to Gresham's law bad money drives out the good. That is, people hoarded the purer and heavier silver pieces but widely spent the lesser value denarii. Therefore the denarii of Caligula and Claudius seemed to disappear. Of course the problem with this argument is that there are still many denarii of Tiberius around, so why were these not driven out of circulation. It is possible that Tiberius minted so many denarii that even Nero's reforms could not completely drive them out of circulation.
This is however all speculation for as I said above we will never know the true answer.
If you are looking for denarii of Nero try finding the pre-reform denarii. Even some post reform denarii of Nero are scarce to rare, but the pre reform denarii of Nero are much more rare.
Edited by orfew
07/07/2018 01:24 am
07/07/2018 01:24 am
