Most modern money is quite light. Bimetallism, a monetary standard based upon a fixed exchange rate of two metals, is long out of practice, and the weights of circulating coins are seldom over 10 grams, unlike the early 20th century when the silver dollar weighed a whopping 26.7 grams. But historically, heavy coinage wasn’t that rare. In the third century B.C., the early Roman Republic issued a series of bronze coinage today referred to as aes grave (“heavy bronze”), the heaviest of which weighed over 340 grams, approximately 12 ounces. The…
