2017-09-28 Thu

The first gold coinage ever issued by the Roman Republic is this gold half stater. It represents one of the most desperate moments in all of the Roman history.

In 218-203 BC a war was waged at an unthinkable cost in terms of men, material and money. This fifteen year of conflict which was fought on Italian soil was known as the Second Punic war. This war bought devastation to the peninsula on a scale it has never encountered before.

In this war, the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal's army is considered to be one of the greatest achievements in the military logistics. The devastation he inflected on Rome legion in the major battles bought Rome to her very knees.

This war prolonged for at least a decade, Rome lost one-fifth of its entire male population of over 17 years of age. It was not only the Roman army that was affected but also the existing coinage of Rome was destroyed. Roman money was based on bronze coinage and this metal was needed for weaponry to fight the war.

Like bronze, there was a shortage in the supply of silver also, which put an extreme strain on the Roman treasury. In 216 BC, a decision was taken to issue gold coins. It was an attempt to provide stability to the increasing faith in the bronze coinage by creating the impression that bronze coin could be freely exchanged for gold. This scheme made the exchange of the token bronze coinage easy and acceptable.

This denomination depicts an oath-taking and pig sacrificing scene in the reverse. The depiction on this coinage shows the joined power of Rome with its Italian allies. This strategy was the need of that time to give a blanket of security to the distressed Roman citizens.