Siliqua

The term has been applied in modern times to various silver coins on the premise that the coins were valued at 1⁄24 of the gold solidus (which weighed 1⁄72 of a Roman pound) and therefore represented a siliqua of gold in value.

Since gold was worth about 12 times as much as silver in ancient Rome (in Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices of 301),[2] such a silver coin would have a theoretical weight of 2.22 grams ((4.45 grams/24)x12 = 2.22 grams).

Thin silver coins as late as the 7th century which weigh about 2–3 grams are known as siliquas by numismatic convention.

The majority of examples suffer striking cracks (testimony to their fast production) or extensive clipping (removing silver from the edge of the coin), and thus to find both an untouched and undamaged example is fairly uncommon.

It is thought that by clipping, siliquaes provided the first coinage of the Saxons, as this reduced them to around the same size as a sceat, and there is considerable evidence from archaeological sites of this period, that siliquas and many other Roman coins were utilized by Saxons as pendants, lucky charms, currency, and curiosities.