Follis
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This is an article about the Roman coin; for an article about the French bicycle manuafacturer, see Follis
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The follis (plural folles) was a large bronze coin introduced in about 294 with the coinage reform of Diocletian. It weighed about 10 grams and was about 4% silver, mostly as a thin layer on the surface. The word follis means bag and there is evidence that this term was used in antiquity for a sealed bag containing a specific amount of coins. The follis of Diocletian, despite efforts to enforce prices with the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), was revalued and reduced. By the time of Constantine, the follis was smaller and barely contained any silver. A series of Constantinian bronzes was introduced in the mid-4th century, although the specific denominations are unclear and debated by historians and numismatists. The follis was reintroduced as a large bronze coin (40 nummi) in 498, with the coinage reform of Anastasius, which included a series of bronze denominations with their values marked in Greek numerals. The fals (a corruption of follis) was a bronze coin issued by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates beginning in the late 7th century, initially as imitations of the Byzantine follis.
See also: Roman currency, Byzantine coinage.
External link
- A close look at a follis by Doug Smith (http://dougsmith.ancients.info/galeriusfol.html)
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Follis is also the name of an old Roman ball game.