This is an educational site about Roman Republican coins and related books. Well over a thousand coins are illustrated and described, and you can read reviews of hundreds of books and articles about the coins and their history. There are also many original short essays, some that take a detailed look at a coin series, and others that chart the development of coinage from the Roman kings through the end of the Roman Republic. Numismatic literature is the right word for the books, but the spirit of this website aims for shorter words and a lighter approach. I wrote it just for fun, and comments about the books are subjective and my own opinion. If you have read something that I would like, or if you have a comment about this website, please contact me either via the yahoo group RROME or by clicking on any picture on this site and writing in the comment box. The site index might help your navigation. There is nothing for sale here. Happy reading!

	Coins: Aes Grave and Didrachms        Books: Crawford Grueber Sear Coins: Second Punic War       Books: Other Key References Coins: the Scipios       Books: Handbooks Coins: the Gracchi       Books: Coins and History Coins: Marius and Sulla       Books: Auction Catalogues Coins: Cicero Crassus Pompey       Books: Hoards and Archaeology Coins: Caesar and Pompey       Books: Minting and Money Coins: Brutus and Cassius       Books: Period-specific studies Coins: Antony and Octavian       Sources for Numismatics Coins: Italian and Provincial       Books: Italian and Provincial Bronze Rarities Index: Direct Links to Coins and Books

A changeable list of irreverent online chit-chat by Andrew McCabe
The Duke of Northumberland K.G., Angry Vejovis, and the Rabid Collectors of Turnpike Tickets
Andrew McCabe’s day at the bookbinder
Emil Szauer, a numismatic mentor
Review of the International Numismatic Congress, Glasgow 2009
Coins at the British Museum, a fresh perspective
Pinkerton’s Directions for Forming Cabinets
Andrew visits the archaeological remains at Naples
New Book Reviews, September 2009

What’s happening with Roman Republican coin books

Since this website was launched in 2004, developments in the publication of coin literature have prompted a redesign. This 2009 update reflects both changes in how information about coins is presented, as well as new research on Roman Republican coins. Although the changes seem to have crept up on us, the way we read about coins has in aggregate changed significantly, and this has changed how I discuss the coin books. However the biggest change on the site is the inclusion of a comprehensive online annotated catalogue of Roman Republican coins as well as a large amount of fresh new essay material.

www.flickr.com

Continued reductions in the cost of online storage as well as increases in bandwidth means that coin pictures are no longer a luxury. I like plain text and there are no fancy gimmicks on this site, however an educational site abour coins benefits from a really good image database. Other image databases exist, Wildwinds, VCoins, Sixbid, CNGcoins etc. All these are great resources but this one is indexed in an academic manner by date and issuer, according to Crawford - and it will in time be updated to reflect revisions to Crawford. It places the time periods and coin issues in an historical context. And it includes many rare issues that have never yet appeared for sale on the internet, 1350 coins at the last count. In many cases pictures of these coins can only be found with difficulty and with great expense through the ownership of a long list of illustrious catalogues - Haeberlin's 1933 Cahn-Hess sale, Crawford, Kestner-Hannover, d'Ailly's collection with its line drawing illustrations, Goodman. Some coin types are as yet unpublished. Images are all from private sources, and all copyright. None appear elsewhere, other than within the linked image-bank. Please contact me if you want to use any image for a numismatic site.

www.flickr.com

There has been a step-change in numismatic auction catalogues in the last five years, both for good and bad, but mostly good. The availability of inexpensive online sales venues has led to the virtual disappearance of printed coverage of low end coins. Auctions more often show commoner types in better condition, rather than rarer types in collectable condition. Academic catalogues of Roman Republican coins such as the Vecchi 3 sale or the Goodman bronzes collection rarely now appear. There are honourable exceptions of course, the 2006 Münzen und Medaillen 19 Gibboni sale being one such. Series with higher average prices still justify academic printed catalogues, such as the BCD Boeotia and Peloponnese sales, and silver-only high-end Roman Republican collections may justify dedicated catalogues in the future, but all-metal catalogues are no more. However stepping into the void, the increasing online retention of internet-only sales from sites such as CNG may in time increase information about obscure but worn rare coins. The online information about Roman Provincial coins has greatly increased in recent years, many rare and from the Roman Republic. Detailed information from published printed catalogues is now routinely available online, from individual dealer sites, Sixbid or CNG (the Coinarchives database has been mostly closed to individual users so I no longer link to it). A collector with a worn denarius can readily find a perfect example online with a full historical description. What is more, academic research notes, a hallmark of great cataloguing, are now available to everyone. This is making numismatics more accessible.

www.flickr.com

A final trend arises from the lower cost of desktop publishing for printed books. An entire category of books has quietly emerged, and for which I have no name since it is a new thing. These are collections of information previously available only with great difficulty and expense through the ownership of obscure academic journal offprints, books long out of print, old sale catalogues etc, topped and tailed with new text or analysis that adds to this ancient information. Most of the examples I have recently seen are in languages other than English. Conii e scene di coniazone (dies and coining scenes) includes new essays combined with Cornelius Vermeule's classic work on dies. So I no longer need to recommend Vermeule's book as a standalone. Die Münzen der Römischen Republik by Rainer Albert is an attractive format single volume catalogue with a proper chronological layout, albeit snagged by some errors, whose input consists primarily of German auction catalogues of the 1990s. La Monetazione Romana Repubblicana by Catalli includes fresh text similarly combined with 1990s catalogues as resources, and I only wish it had an English translation. Richard Reece and Harold B Mattingly have republished their existing corpus in book format, a straightforward but valuable pure-publishing effort. And the translation of Babelon’s numismatic history by Elizabeth Saville is another book that might not have seen the light before the age of inexpensive desktop publishing. Thus I now rarely quote journal offprints in favour of a corpus or festschrift or collection format where that exists. There remain significant gaps, for example the contributions of Professor Ted Buttrey, whose archaeological work on Morgantina led to the fixing of the date of the denarius and who wrote many of the definitive die-studies on Imperatorial coins, cannot be found in one place. Only these rare exceptions will justify comment by me on an individual article that is not easily available in a widely published numismatic journal.

www.flickr.com

The trend towards online publication has not yet extended to information normally published in books. For example, HB Mattingly is surprised that the revised dating arising from the Mesagne hoard is not widely used. But it is not reproduced in any catalogue of the Roman Republic, nor easily found on the internet, so only those rare students who have access to a 25 year old paperback journal know this essential information. Really it is a disgrace. Incidentally the coins on this site are arranged according to Mesagne. There are no long-running online numismatic journals, and website coverage of the Roman Republic is generally fragmented with lots of individually interesting items hidden in scattered websites. The Journal of Ancient Numismatics with contributions on Republican coins by Mark Passehl is an honourable recent exception. I hope to see more from this source. Also, we should not neglect websites in other languages. Many readers of this page will be familiar with the Yahoo RROME group, but are you also aware of www.lamoneta.it which has an active Italian language discussion group on the Republic. The same site has an excellent and developing catalogue of Roman Republican coins though its coverage is still much much less than on this site. An excellent Spanish site is www.denarios.org/republica/ which combines a forum with an online collection and a wonderful collection of monographs on individual Republican coin types. The Spanish tesorillo.com/ is another site with good Roman Republican resources. For completeness I should add Numismatikforum and Numismatik-Cafe in German, although both are primarily discussion sites without significant expert-level content on the Roman Republic as compared with the Spanish and Italian sites. The English language discussion boards Moneta-L does not offer much specialist discussion on the Roman Republic, however Forvm offers the very valuable numiswiki resource containing many numismatic articles as well as the full text of Seth Stevensen’s numismatic dictionary.

I intend to use this page for periodic updates on the status of Roman Republican numismatic literature, and especially emerging trends in publishing as we gradually become more web enabled. Meanwhile, I hope you stumble across some interesting surprises on these pages. The site is rather large so please use my index below to help in your navigation.

Happy reading

Andrew McCabe

Index: Direct Links to Coins and Books

Specific eras and sets of coins can be reached directly by clicking on the links below. This bypasses the web pages with much of the text and goes direct to the pictures. Further down are links to book review sections that cover some of the better known books, and to the short essays embedded in each page.

Direct link to Coin Pictures

Crawford Arrangement

The alternative Babelon or Sear RSC1 arrangement can be found at the end of this list, or an expanded family arrangement below the book review for RSC1.

Coins: 578-215 BC, Aes Grave and Didrachms, Crawford 1-41

Coins: 214-195BC, Second Punic War, Crawford 41-131

Coins: 195-138BC, Scipio Africanus and Scipio Aemelianus. Cr132/233

Coins: 137-107BC, Tiberius & Gaius Gracchi, Crawford 234/310

Coins: 106-73BC, Marius, Sulla, Social War, Crawford 311/398

Coins: 72-50BC, Cicero Crassus Caesar Pompey, Crawford 395/439

Coins: 49-44BC Caesar and Pompey, Crawford 440/480; 45-36BC Sextus Pompey, Crawford 477/511

Coins: 44-42BC, Ides of March to Phillipi, Crawford 480/507

Coins: 42-27BC, Octavian, Antony, Cleopatra, Crawford 512/546

Coins: Italian and Roman Provincial Coinage

Sear Roman Silver Coins (RSC1) or Babelon’s Roman family arrangement

An expanded and much easier to read family arrangement can be found on with the book review for RSC1.

Aes Grave and Pre Denarius struck coins

Anonymous Denarius, Victoriatus, Quinarius, Sestertius

Aburia, Accoleia, Acilia, Aeficia, Aelia, Aemilia, Afrania, Annia, Antestia, Antia, Antonia, Appuleia, Aquillia, Arria, Atia, Atilia, Aufidia, Aurelia, Autronia, Axia, Baebia, Barbatia, Caecilia, Caesia, Calidia, Calpurnia, Carisia, Cassia, Cipia, Claudia, Cloulia, Cocceia, Coelia, Clovia, Considia, Cordia, Cornelia, Cornuficia, Cosconia, Cossutia, Crepereia, Crepusia, Critonia, Cupiennia, Curiatia, Curtia, Decia, Decimia, Didia, Domitia, Egnatia, Egnatuleia, Eppia, Fabia, Fannia, Farsuleia, Flaminia, Flavia, Fonteia, Fufia, Fulvia, Fundania, Furia, Gargilia, Gellia, Herennia, Horatia, Hosidia, Hostilia, Itia, Julia, Junia, Juventia, Licinia, Livineia, Lollia, Lucilia, Lucretia, Lutatia, Maenia, Maiania, Mallia, Mamilia, Manlia, Marcia, Maria, Matiena, Memmia, Mettia, Minatia, Minucia, Mussidia, Naevia, Nasidia, Neria, Nonia, Norbana, Numitoria, Numonia, Ogulnia, Opimia, Oppia, Papia, Papiria, Pedania, Petillia, Pinaria, Plaetoria, Plancia, Plautia, Plutia, Poblicia, Pompeia, Pomponia, Porcia, Postumia, Procilia, Quinctia, Quinctilia, Renia, Roscia, Rubria, Rustia, Rutilia, Salvia, Saufeia, Scribonia, Sempronia, Sentia, Sepullia, Sergia, Servilia, Sestia, Sicinia, Sosia, Spurilia, Statia, Sulpicia, Tarquitia, Terentia, Thoria, Titia, Titinia, Tituria, Trebania, Tullia, Turillia, Valeria, Vargunteia, Ventidia, Vergilia, Vettia, Veturia, Vibia, Vinicia, Vipsania, Voconia, Volteia.

Pompey and Sextus Pompey, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Cornuficius, Labienus, Lepidus, Mark Antony, Fulvia, Octavia, Cleopatra, Lucius Antony, Octavian.

Direct link to Reviews of Better Known Books

Crawford, Grueber and Sear

• RRC: Crawford Roman Republican Coinage
• BMCRR: Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum
• HCRI: Sear, the History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators
• RSC1: Roman Silver Coins, Volume 1 - Republic to Augustus
• RCV1: Sear, Roman Coins and their Values

Other Key References

• Essays Hersh: Coins of Macedonia and Rome: Essays in Honour of Charles Hersh
• From Coins to History: Harold B Mattingly, Selected Numismatic Studies
• Kestner-Hannover: The Coins of the Roman Republic in the Kestner Hannover Museum
• HNI: Rutter, Historia Numorum, Italy
• RPC1: Roman Provincial Coinage I. From the death of Caesar to the death of Vitellius
• CMRR: Crawford Coins and Money under the Roman Republic
• Sydenham: Coinage of the Roman Republic
• Haeberlin: Aes Grave
• FITA: Grant, From Imperium to Auctoritas
• d'Ailly: Recherches sur la Monnaie Romaine
• Babelon: La République Romaine
• Thomsen: Early Roman Coinage
• AIIN29: Annali 29 Istituto Italiano di Numismatica 1983

Other Handbooks

• Kent: Roman Coins
• Albert: Die Munzen der Römischen Republik
• Catalli: La Monetazione Romana Repubblicana
• Wayne Sayles: Handbooks

Key Auction Catalogues

• The Goodman collection of Roman Republican bronzes, CNG43 to CNG47
• Benz collection: Roman Republican Coins, Lanz 88
• Nicholas collection: Silbermünzen der RömischenRepublik, Leu 17
• Numismatic Fine Arts NFA XXVII
• Numismatica Ars Classica auctions
• Vecchi auctions

Sources for Numismatics

• Digital Library Numis, downloads on Republican numismatics
• The Celator
• The Numismatic Chronicle
• American Numismatic Society, ANS MN and AJN

Direct link to short essays

• Arrangements of Early Roman Coinage
• Grueber’s footnotes: ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ and Scarpus
• Postsemilibral bronzes and the date of the Denarius
• Michael Crawford, notes to the Edinburgh collection.
• New Roman Republican coins published by the Goodman collection
• Aemilii Lepidi and Adoptions, Mark Passehl
• On the Concept of Rarity
• Mesagne hoard and its dating implications
• Morgantina, the Coins, T.V. Buttrey
• The Upchurch Hoard
• The Pietas Denarii of Sextus Pompey, T.V. Buttrey
• Al Marco adjustment of denarius weights, Clive Stannard
• Quintus Cornuficius, Phil Davis
• Dacian Imitations, Phil Davis
• Lampsacus and Parium, a tale of twin cities