Julius Caesar Elephant
The Julius Caesar Elephant denarius was one of the 5 most common silver coin types at the time of the Claudian invasion of Britain (1). Crawford estimated 750 obverse dies and with each die producing perhaps 10,000 coin obverses we’re looking at 7.5 million Elephants. Or another estimate is 22.5 million elephants – enough to pay 8 legions.(2) To mint all of these coins, to pay his troops, Caesar simply helped himself to the vast silver reserves in the Temple of Saturn in Rome; where it had been held in sacred trust for time immemorial. They are readily available to collectors but the…
