Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Even sound money tells lies: "The golden age is back" (for about five minutes)


Western Caesar, AD 286-293
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Whatever victories the several pretenders to the empire obtained over one another, they are recorded on coins without the least reflection.

-- Joseph Addison

The coins [he issued] include many literary allusions but none more so than in the cryptic … legend that appears on many of the silver coins:  RSR.  This was short for Redeunt Saturnia Regna, ‘The Golden Age is back’, from Virgil’s Fourth Ecologue.