QUADRANS: COIN OF ROMAN EMPIRE
Quadrans, ND (41-54 AD): Roman Empire
Ruler: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus — the fourth Roman emperor (41-54) since the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Empire, but the first to be born outside Italy (in Roman Gaul).
ND (no date).
SC: (Senatus Consultum — "Decision of the Senate"): indication on copper/bronze coins to confirm their solvency.
PON M TR P IMP P P COS II (Pontifex Maximus Tribunicia Potestate Imperator Pater Patriae Consul II) – Great pontiff, holder of tribunician power, Emperor, father of the nation, consul for the second time.
A hand with long fingers holds scales with two bowls, between which the letters PNR: according to one version – Pondus Nummorum Restitutum ("The weight of money has been restored"; a reference to the reform of weights and measures).
TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG — TIBERIUS CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVGUSTUS.
Rome Mint.
- Bronze: 15 mm - 3.7 g
- Reference price: 15$
COIN QUADRANS — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- ROMAN REPUBLIC + ROMAN EMPIRE, 3th century BC — 2th century AD: quadrans = 1/4 as = 1/2 semis
- ANCIENT ITALY, 4th-3th centuries BC: quadrans = 1/4 as
- ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN STATE FORMATIONS (Carthaginian Empire, Etruria, Iberia, Calabria, Lucania…), 4th-1th centuries BC: quadrans = 1/4 as
QUADRANS as coin name well known since ancient times (from the 4th century BC): coins with this denomination are considered to be among the first in human history. Quadrans first appeared on the Apennine Peninsula as 1/4 part of an even older coin — as. Hence the name: in Latin, quadran means the fourth part.
The most famous are the quadrans of Rome (Empire, Republic and even the pre-Republican period).
By the way, in the modern USA, a coin is used, which etymologically can be put in the same row as a quadrans — quarter as 1/4 of a dollar (at different times in different parts of the world, other coins were issued that were 1/4 of the main monetary unit — for example: quart, quartaro, quarting, cuarto, quattrino).
