ABSTRACT
Octavius secured personal control of the currency in about 37 B.c., when he suspended the Mint Commissioners and issued in his own name. But there was a period of vacillation before he seized the coinage prerogative openly and definitely. In 23 B.c. he restored to the Senate the right to coin bronze. 1 Six years later he also restored the right to issue gold and silver, and for a time it appeared that the control of the currency was reverting to its position under the later Republic. The Mint Commissioners were again in control, and placed their marks upon the coins. But after four years the Senatorial issues of gold and silver were suspended. Even then, however, Augustus was not prepared to make a clean and obvious break with the republican tradition, and he fell back upon the right of military commanders to issue money in the provinces, and opened a mint at Lugdunum (Lyons), from which he issued all his coins. He followed Caesar’s example in placing his effigy upon the coins, and the right of representation upon the money for himself, or, occasionally, for a member of his family, became thenceforward a recognized part of the Emperor’s prerogative. Augustus also swept away the surviving distinction between the free allies and subject states of Rome, with the result that local silver issues ceased in all colonies outside Italy. He concentrated in the Emperor the sole right of issuing gold and silver for the whole of the empire. Authority to issue bronze was given as a normal right to local authorities. In Italy the Senate, bereft of the right to make gold and silver coins, became the authority for the issue of small change, although even in that humble capacity it was subject to some control by the Emperor. This division of powers between Senate and Emperor in Italy was probably a mere adaptation of the traditional imperial policy of keeping the issue of the principal coins in the hands of the supreme political power, while leaving to local authorities the supply of the small change money necessary for petty local transactions. Nevertheless, it was important that the only portion of the currency which yielded a legitimate profit was in the hands of the Senate and of the local authorities, which were much less likely than the Emperor to increase the bronze issues and bring down their value. 1 They did not feel directly the financial pressure of the empty treasury, and would not themselves profit by manipulating the coinage. Moreover, the results of over-issue would affect them very closely as citizens, and such results could be easily brought home to them as senators or local officials by the populace. In consequence, the bronze money was well-preserved for more than 200 years, and the Emperors, driven by their need for funds to resort to the debasement of the money under their control, concentrated attention for the most part on the silver coins, through which, and not through the bronze tokens, 2 the downfall of the currency was manipulated. As the Senate was strictly confined to small denominations, the possible profit from devaluation was small—perhaps too small to attract the attention of either the Emperor or those who controlled the small change.
