Beer

[Dan Howard]

Severan sesterces sell for £80-100 on today's antique market because of their rarity but at the time they weren't worth much. By the time of the Severan period, inflation and coinage debasement meant that a sestertius would not buy you a single beer. Diocletian’s "Edict of Maximum Prices" (301 AD) lists the cost of a pint (actually 1.14 pints) of Pannonian or Celtic beer at 4 denarii communes, which is the equivalent of 4 laureates. Sesterces had stopped being used by the time of Diocletian but four laureates would be worth approximately eight Severan sesterces. So that one sestertius would buy a little over one-eighth of a pint. The price for a pint of beer in a UK pub today seems to average around £3, so the Severan sestertius would get you around 40 pence worth of beer. Perhaps one of the "wee little folk" might get drunk but nobody else.