I recently purchased a Roman coin (Valentinian II) minted in 371 CE. It was an impulse buy costing me a whopping $3.50. I love carrying around this tiny 1600 year old piece of history as a means of keeping stuff in perspective. The irony is that because of its size, low cost, and my propensity for keeping it in my pocket, an item that has survived a millenia and a half will probably be lost forever in my care. Its size is what puzzles me though. Its barely a centimetre in diameter (about the size of a button on a man’s dress shirt) and by making a very tiny scratch in the patina I was able to discern that it’s copper. It doesn’t seem to me that this could have any intrinsic value in Roman times. It weighs less than half of what a modern penny does so you would need a lot of them to make anything useful. Were these things struck as commemarative medallions as opposed to currency?
Money isn’t always related directly to the metal content of a coin. A U.S. quarter for instance, has a metal value a fraction of its face value. Most coins do. The main exceptions to that were gold and silver coins but those aren’t the only type. A big empire like Rome didn’t have to be on a precious metal standard for the money to have value. It was simply stamped with its value by the government and they have inflation and monetary fluctuations just like we do today.
You simply have a low value coin. The reason they aren’t worth much even though they are so old is because there are an absolutely tremendous quantity of them around stretching from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and beyond. The Roman empire was huge and lasted for quite some time. The abandoned money just piled up. Imagine if the U.S. collapsed today and someone 2000 years from now started selling pennies. They probably won’t be worth much in the forseeable future either.
There is a website called dirtyoldcoins.com that sells batches of uncleaned Roman coins in batched for not much money. Their FAQ in that link will give some information on why they are so cheap and abundant. Many of their coins are the small ones as well and they say there are just tons of them and that was a typical coin style then
I rather like the idea of scratching away an ages old patina to have it reveal the words…Moneta Franklinous 
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I guess my assumption was that it has only been quite recently that money has not had an intrinsic value. From what I’ve read I assumed that inflation occured because the purity of the metal was debased (the old school equivalent of printing more money). This coin is so small I can’t see it being worth the copper it’s printed on so to speak. Then again Valentinian II was about as minor a player the empire ever had so maybe it’s fitting. Shame though that it will probably disappear forever under my care.
Funny. 
Bought for young Publius by his grandma.
Certus Ab Accessio Ab Aestimatio…
How did the Romans make such good, sharp dies? I have seen some Roman coins, and until their decline (in the 4th century), they were able to strike some beautiful coins. Any idea how many coins could be made from a die before they wore out?