[throwaway_5753]

How do we get to 38oz of gold? 15k sestertii at 8g per 1k would be 120g of gold (aka 4.25oz), right? Also, where do the silver numbers come from?

Interesting approach!

[panarky]

In the Augustean system, 1 aureus = 25 denarii = 100 sestertii (not 1000 sestertii as stated above).

But at 8 grams of gold per aureus, the ~40 troy ounces of gold annual salary is about right.

[foxyv]

Also, this may have been the brass sestertii at 25 grams.

> In or about 23 BC, with the coinage reform of Augustus, the sestertius was reintroduced as a large brass denomination,

That's 375kg of brass which would fetch about $1700 in today's dollars at scrap prices.

[ponector]

Knowing $125 price per gram of gold it's funny they need to convert to non-metric system to calculate price.

One aureus is approximately $1000 of gold value. And as a collectible item it is worth $3k-10k.