Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[otraque]

PH-grabbed this tidbit from net as i go in depth to study Faber's concepts. http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/LATEROME/art4.htm
<< This left little precious metal to be struck into coins. Also, the need for coins had greatly increased. The army had gotten large raises in their yearly pay under Julius Caesar, Domitian, and Septimius Severus. In order to pay these rising expenses, the government resorted to cheating.( our government is WAY deep into the process already we will be far more vulnerable and this will move quickly at a certain point,imo--max) Under Trajan, the denarius gradually became only 85 - 90% silver. Under Marcus Aurelius, the proportion dropped to about 75% and dropped to about 60% under Septimius Severus (A. D. 193 - 217). Septimius Severus' son, Caracalla, tried another method of cheating. He introduced a "double denarius" that weighed only about one and one half times as much as a denarius. This soon became enormously popular with the government but not with the people who had to accept these underweight debased coins in payment. Severus Alexander (A. D. 222 - 235) tried to reform by going back to the denarius but, once started, this path of runaway inflation and financial irresponsibility on the part of the imperial government proved impossible to control. By the reign of Valerian and Gallienus, the double denarius had only about 25 - 35% silver which looked quite nice when newly minted but soon turned a dull gray in circulation. By about A. D. 260, the middle of Gallienus' reign, the coins had barely 5% silver, mostly in a thin coating of silver over a bronze core. These coins looked tinny when new and quickly turned almost totally black or gained a splotchy gray appearance. They were hastily struck by the mint employees in order to allow the government to pump millions of them into circulation. This is why many of the pictures you will see of mid Third Century coins are poor and the features are hard to see. Some of the pictures in this title are of the best preserved coins obtainable from this era. The economy was in almost total collapse, with many wealthy senators and merchants fortunes totally wiped out because their money was almost worthless. >>