The earliest denarii have usually, on the obverse, the head of Rome with a helmet, the Dioscuri, or the head of Jupiter. Gronovius has given all the authorities upon the subject in his De Sestertiis The latter drachmae, however, appear to have fallen off in weight and there can be no doubt that they were at one time nearly enough equal to pass for equal. The Attic drachma was almost equal to 9¾ d., whereas we have seen that the denarius was but little above 8½ d. It has been frequently stated that the denarius p394 is equal in value to the drachma but this is not quite correct. If the denarius be reckoned in value 8½ d, the other coins which have been mentioned, will be of the following value:. No specimens of the libella are now found. ( De Sestertiis, II.2), however, maintains that there was no such coin as the libella when Varro wrote but that the word was used to signify the tenth part of a sestertius. Pro Rosc. Com. c4) and it is frequently used, not merely to express a silver coin equal to the as, but any very small sum (Plaut. In the time of Cicero, the libella appears to have been the smallest silver coin in use It is, however, improbable that the teruncius continued to be coined in silver after the as had been reduced to 1⁄ 16 of the denarius for then the teruncius would have been 1⁄ 64 of the denarius, whereas Varro only describes it as subdivision of the libella, when the latter was 1⁄ 10 of the denarius. V.174, ed. Müller) names it among the silver coins with the libella and sembella. which would have been so small a coin, that some have doubted whether it was ever coined in silver we know that it was coined in copper.
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