Rare Solidus Weitght

306, Lot: 440. Estimate $100. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Theodosius I, with Arcadius and Honorius. AD 379-395. Æ Exagium Solidi Weight (20mm, 4.05 g, 12h). Constantinople mint. DDD NNN GGG, diademed and draped facing busts of Honorius, Theodosius, and Arcadius / EXAGIVM SOLIDI, Moneta standing left, holding scales and cornucopia. Cf. Göbl, Antike 228-9; RIC X, p. 8. Fine, green patina, cleaning scratches, areas of corrosion on reverse. Rare.

During the later Roman Empire, coin weights began appearing with the legend exagium solidi, a phrase which has often been translated as “the weight (or weighing) of a solidus”, in order to deal with the practice of clipping. Exagium derives from the Latin exigere (lit. “to drive out”). However, extant examples of these weights vary and some weigh much less than the 4.5 g of a full-weight solidus. These lighter weights are thought to possibly represent the lowest acceptable weight for aurei, and were used to withdraw under-weight solidi from circulation and thereby maintain an acceptable weight standard minimum for solidi to circulate at full value.