Quadrans IIIVIR A A A F F

Struck under the authority of the tresviri monetales — the three magistrates responsible for Rome's coinage — this quadrans belongs to a carefully managed Augustan program that reasserted imperial control over the bronze supply after decades of civil war had left small-denomination coinage in chronic short supply. The moneyers' abbreviated titles, A A A F F (auro argento aere flando feriundo — "for casting and striking gold, silver, and bronze"), appear prominently on these issues, a deliberate archaism invoking Republican monetary tradition even as Augustus concentrated real power in his own hands.