Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(ten asses). A Roman silver coin worth about 15 cents. The “penny” of N. T. (Matt. 20:2).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Matthew 20:2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
The denarius (penny) was the principal silver coin of the Romans. It was originally ten times the value of the as (see note on Matt. 10:29, #658) from which circumstance it derived its name. When, afterward, the weight of the as was reduced, the denarius was made equal to the weight of sixteen asses. The value of the earlier denarius was a little over eightpence half-penny, or about seventeen cents; that of the later was sevenpence half-penny, or fifteen cents. This was the ordinary price of a day’s labor.
Under the Republic the denarius had on one side the head of Hercules, Apollo, Mars, Janus, or Jupiter; but under the Empire it bore the title and effigies of the reigning Cesar. See Matthew 22:19-21; Mark 12:15-17.
The “ten pieces of silver” mentioned in Luke 15:8, are supposed to have been denarii; and so are the “fifty thousand pieces of silver” mentioned in Acts 19:19, though authorities vary in opinion.
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