Bronze Follises of Diocletian and Maximian
In AD 301, Diocletian issued his famous economic and monetary reforms which, amongst other things, eliminated the old radiate pieces which had declined in both weight and diameter until they were barely the size of a US Cent (19mm) and replaced them with a new coin of almost US Half Dollar (28 - 30mm) size. Numismatic researchers do not know for sure what these pieces were called, and this point is the subject of much scholarly debate. One likely candidate for the name is the Greek word "nomisma", but other names may have been used both officially and by the local populace amongst whom the pieces circulated. The confusion lies in that official documents still reckoned money in terms of the Sestertius, a piece that hadn't been struck in any kind of quantity for fifty years. We simply refer to them as Follises or Folles, which is actually the name of the leather bag commonly used to store these coins at the time and in which they were shipped newly struck from the mints.
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Emperor Diocletian Biographical and Historical Information.
Emperor Maximianus Biographical and Historical Information.
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