The Brilliant Sergio Leone

The Brilliant Sergio Leone

The 'Briliant' man, who created his own movie-making brand of epic films, with rich characters, plus who went on to create a hand full of films in the 1960's, so very exceptional, that the films earned their own generic moniker;

'Spaghetti Westerns'

         Brilliant man directing the legend

The films listed below were initially deemed as nihilistic and violent; 

A Fistful of Dollars 

For a Few Dollars More

and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 

However, they galvanized the genre of 'Spaghetti Westerns', turning Mr Leone into an international directorial star, and earning the films religious following by viewers from every corner of our universe. 

Films by Mr Leone

        Beautiful picture 

1959, The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Bonnard is the credited director; Sergio Leone served as assistant director and reportedly, however took over completion of the film when Mr Bonnard became severely ill during production)

1961, The Colossus of Rhodes (Mr Leone's first film)

1964, A Fistful of Dollars (1st part of the Dollars Trilogy)

1965, For a Few Dollars More (2nd part of the Dollars Trilogy)

1966, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Final part of the Dollars Trilogy)

      Another graet picture

1968, Once Upon a Time in the West

1971, Duck, You Sucker!

1973, My Name is Nobody (Producer, uncredited co-director)

1975, A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (Uncredited producer, co-director)

1984, Once Upon a Time in America

My sincere respect goes out to this man. 

Thank you for visiting,

Ben 

Denarius Currency

Denarius Currency

Has anyone ever wondered what currency the 'Roman empire' used?

I researched this topic while completing couple of other blogs of mine titled:

'Fiat Money in Circulation'.  

http://onlythebrave10.blogspot.ca/2014/02/fiat-money-in-circulation.html

&

'Bitcoin in the Future'

http://www.goodread10.blogspot.ca/2014/02/bitcoin-in-future.html

I have attached a link of the blogs for you to read, if the link does not work, please copy/paste to the address bar.  

Now, back to today's topic. 

It is important to understand the similarities of our monetary system in use today, with that of the 'mighty' Empire, and the failures associated with this system when in use by the Roman Empire and not learning from the past errors.  

The Roman Empire did not utilize a 'paper' currency.  

The currency in use was actual 'silver' commodity, stamped with the Emperors bust, and shaped into the size of our current 1 dollar coinage.  

The Empire within all of its vast territories used one of the first examples of 'true' debasement of a currency.  

This currency was called 'Denarius'. 

The Denarius, when first utilized was essentially 100% pure silver.  What this means is that, the citizens would carry around with them 'silver coins' to use as 'barter' and/or money in exchange of purchasing an item from another individual.  

The pure silver coinage called Denarius began circulating at the beginning of the first century A.D. 

This changed for the worst soon after this date.  

By the year 54 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero ordered that the Denarius not be a full silver coinage.  The Denarius was now approximately 94% silver and the remainder made-up of other material.  

By around the year 100 A.D., the Denarius coinages silver content was down to 85%.

All other Emperors after Nero, bought the idea of 'devaluing their currency' in order to pay the bills of the Empire, keep the silver for their own usage and increase their own wealth.  

By the year 218, the Denarius coinages silver content was down to 43%. 

By the year 244, the Denarius coinages silver content was taken down to .05, by the Emperor Philip.  

The monetary system of the 'Once Mighty' Empire, directly correlates to the collapse of the city of Rome and and the Roman Empire.  The Denarius coinages silver content was only 0.02%, at the collapse date of the year 410, which was also the date of 'Sacking of the city of Rome'.  After this date, no person accepted the Denarius, as it did not store a value.  

The phrase 'All things must come to an end' comes to my mind, however I hope the 'Central Banks' of each country, particularly 'the once mighty' USA studies the 'devaluation of a currency' and the consequences attached to this.  

Thank you for reading, 

Ben