The period of Roman history following the overthrow of the early kings (c.509 BC) is called the Republic. No Roman coins date to the period of the kings hence the earliest Roman issues are termed Republican. The beginning of Roman coins is no more clearly defined than was the Greek. In central Italy, bronze was the choice metal for commerce. Unformed lumps of metal Aes Rude were traded as items of value for several centuries. In the Third century, BC bronze was cast into rectangular bars of about 5 pounds, Aes Signatum, which were broken into smaller pieces as needed. These bars sometimes had designs and qualify as the first coins if we are willing to accept large ingots under that definition and description. Contact with the Greek cities of Southern Italy led the Romans to issue silver coins for trade even though these were not used at home in Rome. For home use, round coins as large as a Roman pound (Aes Grave) were cast combining the idea of heavy bronze with round coins. Around the time of the Second Punic War (c.211 BC) silver was coined for home use in a denomination of ten bronze asses named the Denarius. These are the first easily collectable Roman coins. Bronze continued to be coined for small change. As inflation progressed the bronzes became small enough that it was practical to strike them from dies rather than casting them in the old method.
The basic unit was the As (plural Asses). By the time of the introduction of the denarius and the beginning of bronze production by striking, the as had declined to a weight about the same as one-sixth of the full pound (Liberal) as of earliest times. Since the as was now the weight of the old 1/6 fraction, the sextans, this weight standard is called sextantal. Later, when the weight was reduced even further we see standards called uncial and semi-uncial named for the original coin denomination that matched the weight of the new as. In addition to the as, fractions were issued in most standards. Commonly seen are the half (semis), third (triens), quarter (quadrans), sixth (sextans) and twelfth (uncia). The usual type for the as was a head of Janus (looking left and right) and the prow (rostrum) of a ship. Both sides bear the numeral of denomination 'I'. Under the prow on the reverse should be the city name ROMA but this specimen was not well enough struck for it to show. Many Republican bronzes are poorly struck and quite crude in appearance. Even high grade coins are often missing significant details.
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