''Aes rude''

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

: ''Naturalis Historia'', XXXIII, XIII, 43 (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

; ) was a nugget of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

used as a sort of proto-

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

in ancient Italy prior to the use of minted coins made from precious metals. The Italian economy of the time (late middle first millennium BC) was based on a bronze standard (unlike the

silver standard The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. Silver was far more widespread than gold as the monetary standard worldwide, from the Sumerians 3000 BC until 1873. Following t ...

s in use in contemporary

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, the Aeginetan standard and its competitor the Attic standard). Consequently, crudely worked lumps of bronze were used as both primitive

ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is Casting, cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedu ...

s and as primitive coins, facilitating trade across the peninsula and paving the way for the first true Roman ingots, the '' aes signatum'', which, in turn, was the precursor of the first Roman true coinage, the '' aes grave''. The earliest surviving piece of ''aes rude'' dates from the early 8th century BC and as late as the late 4th century BC, and was cast in central Italy. It is, simply, bronze, shaped vaguely like a lumpy ingot. Only later on did it become usual to mark these lumps and, eventually, make them into a standard shape (the round, thin disk-shape still in use today).

References

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https://web.archive.org/web/20051228143453/http://dougsmith.ancients.info/feac56cas.html
*Lloyd, J. (trans.), Orrieux, C. & Schmitt Pantel, P., ''A History of Ancient Greece'', Oxford, 1999, Blackwell Publishers, Ltd. * Haeberlin E.: Aes Grave, Das Schwergeld Roms und Mittelitaliens einschließlich der ihm vorausgehenden Rohbronzewährung, Halle 1910 * Sydenham, Edward A.: Aes Grave A Study of the Cast Coinages of Rome and Central Italy. London, Spink, 1926 * Head Barclay V. Historia Nummorum, a Manual of Greek Numismatic, London, 1911 * Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder): Naturalis Historia, XXXIII, XIII, 43 (''antea rudi usos Romae Timaeus tradit''). * Italo Vecchi. ''Italian Cast Coinage. A descriptive catalogue of the cast coinage of Rome and Italy.'' London Ancient Coins, London 2013. Hard bound in quarto format, 84 pages, 92 plates. Hard bound in quarto format,72 pages, 87 plates. A new edition of Italian Cast Coinage (ICC) compiled by Italo Vecchi which summarises the research into Italy's cast bronze coinage since 1885. It lists 327 types from the aes rude and currency bars of early 1st millennium Italy to the final issues during the Second Punic War, many of which are previously unpublished. The book also includes an account of the cast coinages of Rome, Etruria, Umbria, North-East and Central Italy, Lucania and Apulia. Arranged overall by geographical area, the mints within each area are then listed alphabetically; included are details of the historical or geographical background, and an examination of the weight standards and chronology as well as three maps of the area. At the end of the book there are 87 plates illustrating almost all the types in the catalogue. The book is fully indexed for ease of reference. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aes Rude Coins of ancient Rome fr:As (monnaie)#Aes rude

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