Denarius Debasement of the coin's silver content continued after Nero. Later Roman emperors reduced its content to 3 grams around the late 3rd century. The value at its introduction was 10 asses, giving the denarius its name, which translates as "containing ten". In about 141 BC, it was re-tariffed at 16 asses, to reflect the decrease in weight of the as. The denarius continued to be the main coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the middle of the 3rd century. The coin was last issued, in bronze, under Aurelian between AD 270 and 275,
Sino-Roman relations starting in the 6th century AD, Chinese varieties were still considered to be of higher quality. This theory is supported by the discovery of a Byzantine "solidus" minted during the reign of Justin II found in a Sui-dynasty tomb of Shanxi province in 1953, among other Byzantine coins found at various sites. Chinese histories offer descriptions of Roman and Byzantine coins. The "Weilüe", "Book of the Later Han", "Book of Jin", as well as the later "Wenxian Tongkao" noted how ten ancient Roman silver coins were worth one Roman gold coin. The Roman golden "aureus" was worth about twenty-five silver