Roman provincial currency

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Roman provincial currency was coinage minted within the Roman Empire by local civic rather than imperial authorities. These coins were often continuations of the original currencies that existed prior to the arrival of the Romans. Because so many of them were minted in the Greek areas of the empire, they were usually referred to until fairly recently as Greek imperial coinage, and catalogued at the end of lists of coins minted by the Greek cities.

When a new region was assimilated into the Roman Empire, the continuance of preexisting local currencies was often allowed as a matter of expediency. Also, new colonies were frequently given authority to mint bronze coins. These provincial currencies were mostly used by the local inhabitants only for local trade, as their intrinsic values were usually much lower than Roman imperial coinage.