Aes rude

Cast chunks (also cast cakes, Latin. Aes Rude ) are an early form of a measure of value and means of payment in Europe. The oldest finds date from the Early Bronze Age, comprising approximately the period 2000 - 3000 BC The exact dating of individual artifacts is still a big problem, since many of these cast cakes from grave robbers " recovered " and therefore taken out of the find context were. Many of the illegally -dug cast cake ended up as kiloware in yellow foundries and disappeared, never to return. The so-called " iron cake " - rather, we should say " Rohmetallbarren " - are the result of prehistoric copper smelting. The age of the oldest pieces is therefore deemed to be the beginning of the copper smelting. In the Austrian Alps has already been mined at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, copper ore and smelted.

Cast cakes featured in the Bronze Age, the raw material for further processing by the coppersmiths dar. They are both made ​​of pure copper as well as in different, mostly natural bronze alloys. This valuable raw material has already been negotiated across the Bronze Age through the Old World it was then known. In the archaeological find material can be found both whole cast cakes in different sizes, as well as plenty of cuts. Recent research in the field of archaeo lead to the assumption that cast cake already served as Premonetary cash and of course as a raw material in the Bronze Age.

From about 280 BC, the Romans started to standardize the method of payment. First, with the introduction of aes signatum, cast from bronze ingots with marking ( motif), which had a uniform value. A short time later was followed by the first rough coins aes grave (→ see also As). This solved then in subsequent years, the cast chunks as payment gradually from.