Historical-Political Dissertation on Coins, Both Functional and Commemorative

As for the origin and antiquity of coins among pagan nations, some attribute the praise of this invention to one people, some to others. There is no sufficient argument, in the judgment of Pufendorf, in that passage of the Iliad (η, v. 482) that only barter was in use at the time of the Trojan War, as was persuaded to most people along with Pliny. Nay, the contrary seems more likely; and even if a stamped coin had not yet been in use among the Greeks at that time, the use of weighed gold and silver could nevertheless have obtained in commerce. And certainly, it is sufficiently clear even from sacred history that the use of money was already accepted among several peoples before the Trojan War; see Puf. Syst. 5, 5, 1; compare also Wagenf., p. 17. For because Abraham, when he migrated from Chaldea and Haran of Mesopotamia into Canaan by divine command, carried money with him, as has been said, it is undoubted that it already obtained in the Chaldean and neighboring kingdoms. It is contrary to historical truth that Herodotus (Book 1, ch. 18), otherwise a diligent writer, reports that the first gold and silver coins were struck by the Lydians. But let us move to Latium and Italy, in which they say that King Janus (who is said to have reigned in the time of Deborah, the judge of Israel, and therefore is not to be taken as Noah), and thus long before Rome was founded, stamped coins and was the discoverer of money. This invention, however, others prefer to attribute to Saturn, whom Janus had received as a guest. Minutius Felix speaks clearly in his Octavius:

Saturn, he says, a fugitive from Crete, had come to Italy in fear of his raging son, and, received by the hospitality of Janus, taught those crude and rustic men many things, as a cultivated and polished man: to impress letters, to stamp coins, to craft instruments.

On these coins, however, the obverse side showed the head of Janus, or the heads of Janus and Saturn with their backs joined; the reverse side showed the prow of a ship, whence they were called ratiti, from rate raft/ship. See Macrob. 1 Saturn. ch. 7; see Polyd. Virgil. Book 2, ch. 20; Jobert, notit. rei numm. ch. 5; compare however Wafer, de Antiq. numism. Book 2, ch. 3; W. E. Tenz, Monatliche Unterred. Monthly Conversations, year 1694, p. 183. Wagenfeil conjectures that the beginning of the use of money among the Romans specifically was the same as that of the Republic, p. 20:

For, he says, because we believe Festus, the accounts of public and private ledgers taught that the Romans had used gold and silver stamped coins since the time of Romulus;

But he significantly adds,

that they were from overseas; for they did not have their own at that time, nor is it so easily determined when, and by whose benefit, they began to have them.

For Numa Pompilius...