Argenteus

{{Short description|Roman coin}}

Image:Argenteus-Constantius I-antioch RIC 033a.jpg, weighing 3.36 g.]]

The argenteus ({{abbr|pl.|plural}} argentei, 'of silver') was a silver coin produced by the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian's coinage reform in AD 294 to ca. AD 310.{{Citation |last=Elton |first=Hugh |title=The Transformation of Government Under Diocletian and Constantine |date=1 January 2006 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470996942.ch11 |work=A Companion to the Roman Empire |pages=193–205 |editor-last=Potter |editor-first=David S. |access-date=2023-11-02 |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9780470996942.ch11 |isbn=978-0-631-22644-4|url-access=subscription }} It was of similar weight and fineness to the denarius of the time of Nero. The coin was produced at a theoretical weight of 1/96th of a Roman pound (about 3 grams), as indicated by the Roman numeral XCVI on the coin's reverse.

One aureus equaled 25 argentei and one argenteus equaled 8 folles.

The term argenteus, meaning "of silver" in Latin, was first used in Pliny's Natural History in the phrase argenteus nummus (silver coin). The 4th-century historian Ammianus uses the same phrase, though there is no indication that this is the official name for a denomination. The Historia Augusta uses the phrase to refer to several fictitious coins.