> Interesting article, do wonder how they handled forgeries (edit: got grams and ounces mixed up) Monetary denominations are a units of weight. So you weigh t

> Interesting article, do wonder how they handled forgeries (edit: got grams and ounces mixed up) Monetary denominations are a units of weight. So you weigh them. Mass and volume. It is hard to replicate silver and gold with cheaper metals. Back when the USA was on a bimetal standard you didn't technically have to have the money minted to have a "dollar of gold" or a "dollar of silver". It was same during the Roman era, although obviously they didn't use monetary units based on the Spanish Doubloon (ie: pieces of eight, or eight reals) So if you have 26.73 grams of silver you can say "I have a dollar in silver". It doesn't matter if it was stamped or not. Of course, that is worth about $21 nowadays since we no longer use money in the absolute technical sense, but currency based on the credit of the Federal government and inflation is a bitch. To this day if you weigh "silver coinage" in the USA it more or less weighs the same as it did before. Although obviously it is not exact anymore since our money is no longer silver based. That is if you take 10 dimes, 4 quarters, or two 50 cent pieces they all weigh about the same. Of course Nickels and Pennies don't work since they are not silver-based. This is why you see in old cartoons miserly people biting coins. They are theoretically checking to make sure it wasn't plated lead. People would shave coins to get little bits and pieces off the edges so it wouldn't affect the appearance. Which is why more modern coins are stamped with ridges and decorations near the edges. And, of course, as the Roman Empire fell they would debase their own currency in order to cover debts. So they would reduce the size of the coins or try to mix different metals in with it. Effectively the government was counterfeiting their own coins.