sear

[COINS FAN]

Hello, i would like to buy roman imperial coins and their values. Is it the most complete book actually? Is there errors, coins inside who dnt exist as on ric? Should i buy it now or wait a future book?

[SC]

What exactly do you want a book for?

Some books a great for somethings but horrible for other things so it depends on exactly what you want it for.

Shawn

[curtislclay]

Sear's new 5-volume Roman Coins of course includes many more coins than his old one-volume version first published in 1964. However it still includes nothing like every published type and variety. It is an expanded handbook, which makes no attempt to be a definitive catalogue.

Sear lists coins first by ruler, then by denomination, finally by reverse type in alphabetical order. The reader will therefore find it very difficult to reconstruct what mints a particular emperor used, and in what chronological order he produced his types at each mint. But one needs precisely these two facts, where the coins were struck and in what order in what year, to make historical sense of the coinage. So Sear's book cannot provide the basis to investigate or truly understand any serious numismatic question.

[dougsmit]

Hello, i would like to buy roman imperial coins and their values. Is it the most complete book actually? Is there errors, coins inside who dnt exist as on ric? Should i buy it now or wait a future book?

I had not heard that criticism of RIC.  Certainly there are many coins that exist that are not in RIC but how do you show they listed tings that do not exist?

All books will have errors.  That is one advantage we have when publishing online where it is easier to correct errors. RIC lists several coins that were only known from one specimen and a few that were listed from old books like Cohen leaving open the possibility that the only specimen was destroyed in WWII but it hardly seems a problem compared to leaving out the hundreds of coins discovered after the books were published.   Proving something exists is relatively easy if you have it but proving something does not exist is harder.

[Jay GT4]

I think we are talking about 2 different references here...  RIC "Roman Imperial Coinage" and Sear's "Roman Coins and their Values"

[curtislclay]

Yes, Coins Fan asked which of those two was better. I then commented on the insufficiencies of the new Sear, and Doug questioned Coin Fan's assertion that RIC lists some non-existent coins.

The earlier RIC volumes were heavily dependent on Cohen and inclined to take over any coin Cohen listed, without bothering to check the original in Paris or wherever. So naturally they did take over some of Cohen's errors or misreadings.

Two random examples: RIC Caracalla 430A, an As with alleged legend LIBERALITAS AVGG COS II S C. This coin is in Paris, and its rev. legend has been remade from an original AVGVSTI COS S C (RIC 422A).

RIC Caracalla 418B, a sestertius with alleged rev. VICTORIA AVGVSTORVM S C, cited from the plates of Bernhart's Handbuch. But Bernhart mixed up his casts. That reverse comes from a sestertius of Maximus Caesar. The correct reverse for the obv. of Caracalla that Bernhart illustrates was INDVLGENTIA AVGG IN CARTH S C: it is the identical Hirsch Sale coin quoted by RIC 418A, which is now in BM from my first collection.

[Joe Sermarini]

There will not be a complete perfect catalog of Roman coins in our lifetimes. We are still learning and correcting.

If you can only buy one, RIC is better.  However, at this time, it may be difficult to find a complete set of RIC. Some volumes are out of print. If you do find one, it will be expensive.

SRCV is an excellent reference for the typical collector. Curtis is right, of course, it has limits, but only a small percentage of collectors aspire to the level of understanding he describes. Those collectors need RIC, BMCRE, BnF, Cohen and more.

[quadrans]

I agree both of you Curtis, Doug and Joe...

IMO the new series of Sear mostly useful the new amateur collector because we do not have in the market the RIC Volumes...

Any way I have both in my library (and so many other book, never enough...etc), but I very rarely open the Sear book's always used the RIC Volumes
or the Internet sometimes...


If you need to be doing some "scientific research"  and comparison the RIC are the more comfortable and useful...


 Regards
 Q.