Poseidonia-Paestum e la sua moneta

The second part of this volume analyses the production of the mint in the Republican and Imperial periods. From the last decades of the 3rd century BCE bronze coins are produced with the shortened legenda PAIS and marks of value (like contemporary Roman coinage). The alternation between types and the presence of marks of value made it possible to organize the coins into a system. The coin production of this period is characterized by series of four or five nominal values. On the most recent series a personal name appeared for the first time: Q. VA, probably a public official. Other magistrates were mentioned in series dated to the 2nd century BCE with legenda PAES or PAEST. These emissions have also been organized in a system, and grouped according to the presence of other letters or symbols. To this period is dated the first production of the semis, the most valuable coin minted in Paestum. The last period of activity of Paestum’s mint can be dated between the Late Republic and the early Empire. After the Social War, the inscriptions on coins mention the presence of collegia formed by either two or four magistrates. Some series, including the semis with an image of minting on the reverse, are connected to redistributions of funds from taxes or acts of euergetism. From the second quart of the 1st century BC, only semisses and trientes were produced in Paestum. The only exception is a single series of quadrantes with strigil and unguentarium. The highest volume of coins minted by Paestum is reached in this phase, with the minting of the semis with the names of the magistrates L. FAD(ius) e L. STA(tius). In the Augustan period and until the closure of the mint under Tiberius, the only coin minted is the semis. Interesting is the production of the coin with the image of a two-story building on the reverse and the legenda MINEIA M.F., a matron whose euergetism is known also from inscriptions. Among coins dated to the reign of Tiberius, notable are two series with the names of the flamines in charge of the production. Most coins produced in Paestum had a very limited circulation, restricted to the city. Finds of coins outside the urban context are rare, in particular in the last phases of the mint.