n a previous article in this magazine (see 10) we looked at the base silver radiates of Postumus, first of the so-called Gallic emperors, a breakaway regime encompassing the provinces of Gaul, Britain and Spain. In this issue I return to the coins of Postumus to tell another story, the tale of the last of the large brass and copper Roman aes issues. It was the ten years that comprised the seventh decade of the third century that saw the end of these large bronzes, sestertii, dupondii and asses, sub-denominations of the silver denarius. They had been produced for some three centuries, since the days of the first emperor Augustus, but with the enormous debasement of the silver antoninianus (which began life as a double-denarius) these large bronzes now had more value as scrap metal than as units in an ordered monetary system. Indeed, as we have seen, many seem to have ended their days in the melting pot, providing the raw material from which to make radiate imitations (see 3). Indeed, occasionally Postumus’ sestertii are found neatly chopped in half, probably to make it easier to melt them down, although it is remotely possible that they
