What Happened To Out Of Date Ancient Coins?

I don't know the answer to this, but in the excellent Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon, France (Roman Lugdunum) is a small hoard of 12 silver denarii found with the skeleton of a Roman soldier. The coins had been in a purse which had rotted away. The newest of them was of Septimus Severus and the oldest from Mark Anthony (more than 200 years older). It's believed the coins represented the soldier's pay packet and that he died around 197AD.

I think FR pretty much nailed it. To expand with specific examples:

- The overt propaganda of the EID MAR denarius indicates that it was probably minted in large quantities, so in order for it to be so rare today, the whole series was probably ordered to be destroyed by Antony and Octavian.

- As stated above, Nero recalled old denarii to re-coin them at lower fineness. The Augustus "Gaius and Lucius" and Tiberius denarii are probably only common today because of an enormous initial mintage, quite possibly in the hundreds of millions.

- History tells us that Caligula's coinage was recalled after his death.

- Trajan also recalled his predecessors' coinage to issue more of his own.

- Antony's legionary denarii were minted at a lower purity, and it is well-documented that they circulated freely until debasement caught up with them, sometime between the reigns of Commodus and Severus.

- Considering the size, wealth, duration, and influence of Pescennius Niger's denarii ought to be much more common than they are, indicating that they were probably also subject to a recall.

- History tells us that owning a coin of Geta was likely a capital offense after 211, although the survival rate of his coins is still quite high. Some provincial coins can be found with his portrait scratched off.

- The coins of many usurpers were likely destroyed, particularly Domitius against Diocletian, and Martinian and Valens against Constantine.

- Hoards seem to point to the fact that many late bronzes circulated together, and particularly the AE4's of Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius II likely survived the collapse of the western empire in 476.

What happened to a deceased emperor's coinage depended to a large degree on the manner of their demise, and the opinion of that emperor by subsequent regimes.

For the most part, they would have simply remained in circulation, treated as coins in more modern times were treated - "money is money", no matter whose picture appears on it.

Some ex-emperors were reviled some even to the extent of a proclamation of damnatio memoriae - the official expungement of the person from the public record, which included destruction of all known coins and monuments. In times of civil war, revolution and usurpation, owning a coin of "the enemy" could easily land you in trouble. Evidence suggests that households who owned portraits or a hoard of coins of "the wrong emperor", would be exterminated when their rival's troops paid a visit.

Others, on the other hand, were deified and honoured by their successors. Their coins would continue in use; indeed, as the emperors in question had now been officially elevated to godhood, anyone deliberately destroying their coins would have been irreligious, as well as treasonous.

In times of civil war, revolution and usurpation, owning a coin of "the enemy" could easily land you in trouble. Evidence suggests that households who owned portraits or a hoard of coins of "the wrong emperor", would be exterminated when their rival's troops paid a visit.

Finally, of course, as mentioned above - the ever-present scourge of inflation meant that, for silver coins at least, old coins generally had better silver content, so when found were usually plucked out of circulation and returned to the Mint for melting and re-issue.

Coinage reform was sometimes undertaken for the personal gain of the coin-issuing emperor. When the double-denarius, or antoninianus, wsa first issued by emperor Caracalla in AD 215, the rule was that anyone paying taxes must pay in old denarii coins, but government payments would be paid out in antoninianii. As there was only 1.5 denarii's worth of silver in an antoninianus, that was a nice tidy involuntary extra tax people paid on every transaction. The denarii collected in taxes would, of course, be melted down and turned into antoninianii.

Well outside of the "ancient and medieval" range, this had also happened to the 1741 coinage of Ivan VI of Russia; for literally decades, well into the 1770s, people found with Ivan VI coins were severely punished.

I'm not specifically aware of any ancient examples of the same problem, but it wouldn't really surprise me (though I suspect that it wouldn't have quite gone to the "even one wrong coin is enough" levels of 1770s Russia).

Yes, but I'm not sure if I could quickly find any specific examples.

Interesting thread....I've learnt something thanks..