Die Bergwerke der Iberischen Halbinsel und die römische Geldwirtschaft

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between mining, precious metal extraction and coinage minting in the late Roman Republic and the Principate. It focuses on Roman mining on the Iberian Peninsula; it is assumed that the mining of silver and gold in the Hispanic provinces was a prerequisite for the coin minting of the denarius in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE and the aureus in the 1st century CE, and that the end of mining activities around the year 200 CE was a significant cause of the crisis of the Roman monetary system in the 3rd century.