Historical studies

32
of our era, there was nothinfj like a uniform rate of
coina-^e of tctradrachms at Alexandria. None were
issued from the time of the Roman conquest, in
30 B.C, till 20 A.D. ; a few were struck under Tiberius,
but mysteriously disappeared from circulation: then,
in the second to the sixth years of Claudius, fairly
large numbers appeared, and again, after a lapse of
ten years, in the third to the sixth years of Nero ;
two years followed without any silver coinage, and
then, after a very small issue in the ninth year of
Nero, came an enormous activity of the mint, which
died away eight years later in the third year of
Vespasian. In the following thirty years there are
only seven of which any tctradrachms arc known,
and the issues of all but two of these years must
have been small, as specimens are rare. Thereafter,
for seventy years, we find examples dated in every
year except two ;
THE ROMAN COINAGE OF ALEXANDRIA
then comes another gap of ten
years, broken by one issue only ; then, during the
thirteen years of the sole reign of Commodus, there
are coins of every year, and in some cases large
numbers are found. In the reigns of Septimius
Severus and his sons, covering a quarter of a century,
tctradrachms occur belonging to most years, but
in all instances they are extremely rare, and very
few can have been struck. With the second year of
Elagabalus fairly large issues begin once more, and
thereafter, till the reform of the coinage under
Diocletian in 296, there was a mintage of every year,
except 251-2 and 252-3, though the number of coins
put into circulation must have varied considerably
from year to year.
61. Wastage of Currency. As no uniform rate
can be postulated, the alternative way of defining
the wastage would be to compare several hoards
covering a fairly long period, but ending at different
points during the period. The hoards described here,
however, do not give very good data for this purpose ;
and, so far as I can ascertain, the majority of similar
hoards found in Egypt share the same characteristics.
That is, most of them seem to have been buried
within certain very limited periods : the coins found
in hoards usually end with the middle of the reign
of Marcus Aurelius, the early years of Aurelian,
or the end of the issues of Diocletian. These dates
mark lines of general disturbance in Egj'pt— the
" Bucolic war " and revolt of Avidius Cassius, the
Palmyrene invasion, and the usurpation of Domitius
— when it would naturally occur that large quantities
of treasure would be buried, part of which the owners
would never return to recover. But this narrow
limitation of the hoarding periods is unfortunate for
our present purposes.
It happens that these times of disturbance were
almost coincident with times of debasement of the
coinage—there may indeed have been some causal
connexion between the two. The size and fineness
of the Alexandrian tetradrachm persistently dimi-
nished under Roman rule ; but the most sudden
and marked depreciations were at the end of the
reign of Marcus Aurelius and in the tenth year of
Gallienus, while the issue of tctradrachms ceased
entirely during the revolt of Domitius. A man hoarding
coins would probably select, from amongst those that
came into his hands, the specimens of most intrinsic
value, and keep these, passing back into circulation
baser pieces which were nominally worth as much.
Hence any hoards formed shortly after a sudden
depreciation of the coinage would tend to be composed
mainly of the older issues, to the exclusion of the
new ; and thus the composition of such a hoard
would not be a fair index of the actual circulation
at the time of its formation.
It is, however, possible to obtain from these
statistics some evidence as regards wastage during
the years from 230 to 280 A.D. Professor Petrie
has kindly investigated the six hoards which cover
the greater part of this half-century, and finds
that the period of half-waste lies between 15 and 22
years, the mean being 18 years. Taking this result,
he states the following as the proportions of the
original issues left in successive five-year groups :
After 5 years 8246 per cent.
„ 10 „ 67-8
., IS .. 56'
,, 20 „ 46-
» 25 „ 379
„ 30 „ 3i'2
» 35 .. 257
,. 40 „ 21-2
,. 45 .. 17"5
.. 50 „ I4'4
„ 55 » ii'S
» 60 „ 9-8 „
„ 90 „ 3'05
„ 100 „
But, while this rate of wastage seems reasonable
within the period from which it is calculated, it
docs not suit the figures of the first century. If
the wastage of the coinage of Nero had been at
this rate, the issues of his later years would appear
2-
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