The siliqua (plural ''siliquae'') is the modern name given (without any ancient evidence to confirm the designation) to small, thin, Roman silver coins produced in the 4th century A.D. and later. When the coins were in circulation, the Latin word ''siliqua'' was a unit, perhaps of weight defined by one late Roman writer as one twenty-fourth of a Roman

solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid * ...

. The term siliqua comes from the ''siliqua graeca'', the seed of the carob tree, which in the Roman weight system is equivalent to of a scruple ( of a

Roman pound The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian system and the Mesopotamian system. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented. Length T ...

or about 0.19

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to th ...

s). The term has been applied in modern times to various silver coins on the premise that the coins were valued at of the gold solidus (which weighed of a Roman pound) and therefore represented a siliqua of gold in value. Since gold was worth about 12 times as much as silver in ancient Rome (in Diocletian's ''Edict of Maxmimum Prices'' of 301),Bransbourg, Giles. "Inflation and monetary reforms in the fourth century: Diocletian's twin Edicts of AD 301" in ''Debasement: manipulation of coin standards in pre-modern monetary systems'', edited by Kevin Butcher, 2020. such a silver coin would have a theoretical

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

of 2.22 grams ((4.45 grams/24)x12 = 2.22 grams). This has not prevented the term from being applied today to silver coins issued by Constantine, which initially weighed 3.4 grams and to the later silver (heavy) "siliqua" of

Constantius II Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic ...

of c. 3 grams, but it would fit the later "reduced siliqua" from after the reform of 355 which weighed about 2.2 grams. These are called "light" or "reduced" siliquae to differentiate them. The term is one of convenience, as no name for these coins is indicated by contemporary sources. Thin silver coins as late as the 7th century AD which weigh about 2–3 grams are known as siliquae by numismatic convention. The majority of examples suffer striking cracks (testimony to their fast production) or extensive clipping (removing silver from the edge of the coin), and thus to find both an untouched and undamaged example is fairly uncommon. It is thought that by clipping, siliquae provided the first coinage of the

Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

, as this reduced them to around the same size as a

sceat A ( ; ang, sceatt , ) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia, and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period that normally weighed 0.8–1.3 grams. History Its name derives from Old English ', meaning "wealth", "money", and "c ...

, and there is considerable evidence from archaeological sites of this period, that siliquae and many other Roman coins were utilized by Saxons as pendants, lucky charms, currency and curiosities.

References and external links

{{Roman coinage Coins of ancient Rome Numismatics Silver coins

See also

References and external links