Aes rude

Consequently, unworked lumps of bronze were used as both primitive ingots and as primitive coins, facilitating trade across the peninsula and paving the way for the first true Roman ingots, the aes signatum, which, in turn, was the precursor of the first Roman true coinage, the aes grave.

The earliest surviving piece of aes rude dates from the early 8th century BC and as late as the late 4th century BC, and was cast in central Italy.

Only later on did it become usual to mark these lumps and, eventually, make them into a standard shape (the round, thin disk-shape still in use today).

It lists 327 types from the aes rude and currency bars of early 1st millennium Italy to the final issues during the Second Punic War, many of which are previously unpublished.

The book also includes an account of the cast coinages of Rome, Etruria, Umbria, North-East and Central Italy, Lucania and Apulia.