426, Lot: 565. Estimate $150. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Arcadius, with Honorius and Theodosius II. AD 383-408. Æ Exagium Solidi Weight (20.6mm, 4.47 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck circa AD 403-408. DDD NNN GGG, helmeted, draped, and cuirassed facing busts of Arcadius in the center with Honorius and Theodosius II to either side / EXAGIVM SOLIDI, Moneta enthroned facing, head left, holding scales, Victory(?) on globe, and her right foot on prow; CONS. Bendall, Weights 11. Fine, dark brown and green patina with traces of red, earthen highlights/deposits, plugged.

During the later Roman Empire, coin weights began appearing with the legend exagium solidi, a phrase which has often been translated as “the weight (or weighing) of a solidus”, in order to deal with the practice of clipping. Exagium derives from the Latin exigere (lit. “to drive out”). However, extant examples of these weights vary and some weigh much less than the 4.5 g of a full-weight solidus. These lighter weights are thought to possibly represent the lowest acceptable weight and were used to withdraw underweight solidi from circulation and thereby maintain an acceptable weight standard minimum for solidi to circulate at full value.