The Mints of the Empire: Vespasian to Diocletian

In a paper published in the I9I7 volume of this Journal, pp. 59 ff., I attempted to make available for the general student the results of some recent research on coins. The present paper is designed to continue the task thus begun.1 It follows the same plan and is subject to the same restrictions. General principles are stressed, while for details reference is made to the special publications noted on pp. 263, 264. Only the imperial issues, not the purely local or provincial, are considered. The lengthy period included in our present survey may be conveniently divided into three parts: (A) from Vespasian to the death of Commodus. (B) from Septimius Severus to the accession of Valerian. (C) from Valerian and Gallienus to Diocletian. (A) At the death of Vespasian the mints of Rome were bearing the main burden of coinage. The imperial mint for gold and silver was working quite alone, while the Senatorial for aes2 was assisted only by a branch mint at Lugdunum. The activity of this Gallic mint apparently hardly extended into the reign of Domitian, and Rome was then left in possession of an unchallenged supremacy in coinage. No substantial change of system can be traced during the whole of the first period. Occasions for local coinage were by no means lacking-the German and Dacian wars of Domitian, the Dacian and Parthian wars of Trajan, the provincial journeys of Hadrian, the Parthian war of Verus and the Danube campaigns of Marcus Aurelius, the revolt of Avidius Cassius in the East at once come to the mind; but, in the main, with the exception of quite a few issues to be discussed immediately, the coinage preserves a uniformity of style and fabric which incline us to attribute it to one centre only. The longer one studies coits the less is one anxious to assert that the last word has been said about any branch of them. Intensive study may reveal differences undetected as yet by the eye or perhaps even unguessed by the mind. But, apart from the strong impression of uniformity made by the coins themselves, there are one or two considerations which bear strongly in the same direction: (a) There is good reason for thinking that series of coins were