Practice question · Multiple choice
Assaying the silver content of dated coins across a century produces a fiscal history no chronicle contains. What is being measured?
Hints
- The coin says one denarius. Ask what it contains, and who benefits from the gap.
- Why would a government prefer this to raising a tax?
Show the answer
B. Debasement: metal quietly reduced while face value held
Why
The metal is a physical record of a policy no ruler announced, so a curve of fineness traces fiscal desperation directly. It is the classic case of unwitting testimony in numismatics, the coin was not trying to tell you anything, which is precisely why it can be trusted.
Practise Numismatics and Epigraphy
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Numismatics and Epigraphy
- The denarius fell from about 97% silver under Augustus to about 5% by the mid-third century. By what…
- Sort each element of a coin: reliable evidence or state advertising?
- Complete the reading of a coin.
- A worn coin of 60 CE is found in a layer. What does it establish?
- What makes inscriptions structurally valuable as evidence?