In or shortly after 294AD, someone who was living in what is now rural Switzerland buried nearly two years of wages (over 4 000 ‘silver‘ coins) – a hoard which was discovered in an orchard earlier this year. The find, though extraordinary in itself due to size and state of preservation, is also remarkable for what it literally contained.
As is the case with most Roman coin hoards, the coins were consciously selected by the person who deposited them – generally for their metallic value, or, as in this case, their perceived level of debasement.
Romans were used to the debasement of their silver coinage – and as a result, inflation in goods and services. The correlation is because the silver Denarius was the coinage of taxation – and thus the preferred coin of commerce. With mounting financial difficulties through the late second through to the late third centuries AD, successive rulers reduced the silver content and increased the circulation numbers of their silver ‘workhorse’ coin so as to be able to cover mounting budgetary deficits. This meant that in a span of a little over two centuries, the silver content of the Denarius had fallen from 95% to 5%.
It is thus not difficult to see why someone was removing 5% content Deanarii and setting them aside – whoever this person was, they correctly foresaw the complete debasement of their wages (a reality which resulted in coins being dipped in silver rather than having any real content whatsoever). One curator at the British museum put it quite succinctly when he explained that “the silver contained in [these coins] guaranteed a certain value retention in a time of economic uncertainty” – this person was hedging, much like the ‘silver bugs’ and ‘gold stackers’ of today.
Had this person been able to return to reclaim their savings, they would certainly have benefited, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were unable to do so. It must be noted though that this person would have done better to hold gold, which maintained it’s value relative to goods more or less completely through the course of the Empire’s history.
Startlingly enough, this is proving to also be the case with the US dollar, which has lost 83% of it’s spending power since 1981. Conversely, an ounce of gold has increased in price by 97%, meaning that it is actually outperforming one of the world’s most trusted currencies. Though stocks and bonds might have a higher short term yield, it would seem that the role of the yellow metal as a stabilizer and hedge against inflation isn’t quite over yet.
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