aes grave: Cast bronze issue of the Roman republic; literally "heavy bronze."
aes rude: Large cast rectangular bronze coin, one of the earliest Roman coins.
alloy: Mixture of more than one metal.
The Roman Aes Grave
Although the history of the coinage of Rome is outside the scope of the present volume, nevertheless the Aes Grave holds so conspicuous a place in the coinage of Italy as a whole that occasional reference to it will be necessary.
Aes grave - Cast bronze coins of the Roman republic; literal translation is "heavy bronze".
Aes rude - Large cast rectangular bronze coin, one of the earliest Roman coins. These coins circulated well before 500 BC and were exchanged by weight.
Aes Grave
About 250 bc Diodotos, satrap of the Seleukid province of Bactria, revolted and established the independent Greek kingdom of Bactria, which lay mostly in what is now Afghanistan.
Aes grave of uncertain systems, with VΕ in monogram.
Quadrans. Three crescents.
Cockle-shell.
Anonymous Issue, Aes Grave Sextans, 280-245 BC (275 BC?), Second Series, Rome
(No legend)
Head of one of the Dioscuri, wearing pileus, two pellets behind
(No legend)
Head of the other Dioscurus, wearing pileus, two pellets behind
34mm x 39mm, 47.72g ...
Italian cast coins, including Aes grave (139)
25 (3/93) mbs. 1007 ancients among 1285. 481 G (including many fractions), 48 RR, 300 RI, 3 contorniates, 106 RP, 47 Byz, 15 Celtic England, 3 Anglo-Saxon
Greek fractions (among 481)
26 (6/93) HQP.
The importance of bronze as a war commodity brought about a rapid appreciation in its value, leading to the series of drastic reductions in the weight standard of the aes grave coinage which have already been described.
The denarius was first issued in the late third century BC as a 'modern' alternative to the unwieldy Aes Grave bronze coinage. First valued at 10 asses, the denarius was soon retariffed at 16 asses.
This coinage may have predated the aes grave discussed above, but was minted and used largely in Magna Graecia and Campania.
the Romans, in common with other Italian peoples, had used as an improvement on the system of barter, large pieces of bronze known as Aes rude and Aes grave.
UMBRIA, Iguvium. Circa 220 BC. Æ Aes Grave Uncia. Bunch of grapes within raised circle / Incuse bunch of grapes & pellet within raised circle. Haeberlin 10, HN Italy 28.
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they were replaced by a proper form of coinage which included large round cast bronze coins, called AES GRAVE, for local commerce, and a series of silver coins, called didrachms, ...
In the West, this method has been employed almost exclusively for base-metal coins and those of such large size that it was impossible to strike them with manual force, such as the Etrurian and Roman aes grave and, in later times, ...
The "small change" coins were copper Aes Graves, so big they would break your toe if you dropped one and they certainly wouldn't fit in your tunic.
 See also: Bronze, Coinage, Struck, Silver, Ancient
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