While the
wolf and twins got full coverage, one of my favorite issues, the Coins of the Great Persecution (now usually placed with
Maximinus II), were squirreled away with only one photo each (including a particularly
poor example of one of the two most common ones) and captions but no detailed
catalog of existing variations. Rubbing salt in my wound was the half page of blank paper left at the bottom of page 1199 exactly where that
catalog would fit. I’m trying to assemble a set by
officina and variety of the two common
types. This listing is a little better than that in
RIC where they were omitted altogether when the authors of Volumes VI and
VIII each thought they belonged to the other. I lost interest in cataloging the
wolf but you can do yours if you look between
Romulus Augustus and
Arcadius.
Like
Cohen,
ERIC II considers coins of the Eastern Empire (after
Theodosius I split the Empire up between
his kids) to be
Byzantine.
Cohen left them out altogether;
ERIC II included
Arcadius as the first of 250 pages of
Byzantine issues taking the Roman series all the way to 1453 AD. A sudden thought: Why not stick something else in so the coverage of the end of the
Byzantines under Constantine XI in now on page 1450 could end on page 1453 to match the year? What could we stick in? How about expanding the page 1451 coverage of the Anonymous
Christ folles now consisting of just four coins with no identifications beyond the note that these four are the main
types known? Perhaps the
identification of the coins to reigns is too controversial? Perhaps using old fashioned terms like Classes A, B, C and G (the four shown) would require too much explanation? Coins showing a
portrait of
Christ have a following in the
Christian market. Do these extremely popular and common
types deserve coverage even beyond the half page of blank space now occupying page 1451? The author is obviously no fan of anonymous coins.
Perhaps you have sensed that I was disappointed in many aspects of
ERIC II. However I do believe that it would be a great
help to many collectors – particularly those who will be
buying high grade examples of high value coins. It will do less for those owning coins difficult to attribute even to a ruler with certainty. I’m not yet sure that the book is worth $150 to me but I already have a rather extensive
library of coin books, I am not a Roman only collector and I have a decent familiarity with online resources that enables me to find much of what I want to know for free. Collectors new to the hobby wanting to know what is available could benefit from the book. For collectors desiring a
catalog of everything that the book covers (including
Byzantines but not Republicans), the
price strikes me as a
bargain. If you only collect a small range of issues (perhaps the
12 Caesars) you might be as well off
buying a volume of
RIC or
BMC (British Museum
Catalog) but a set of other comprehensive books to cover the whole period of
ERIC II would cost ten times as much and be nearly that much heavier. I do consider
ERIC II more than the equal value of $150 worth of any other beginner level
catalog listings (
Sear, VanMeter,
Vagi).
Sear is very nice in many ways but not as
complete and has not reached the end of the Empire yet (let alone
Byzantine). The
part already released sells for more than
ERIC II and we really don’t know what we will have when the last volume appears.
The pictures are beautiful. The only better sources of as many pictures are online sites like
Wildwinds or
ACSearch. There are enough of them to give a
good idea of what is available but sometimes I wish I
had more than one version of a
type when the
style is considerably different from the one selected. This is most obvious when the chosen plate coin is an
aureus and you are trying to match up a bronze nominally of the same
type. There is also the matter of various mints having such different
style that a
Rome mint coin and its Eastern version poorly match each other. At the least I would like to have seen illustrations of a typical coin from branch mints during the period that the distinction was made by
style not by
mintmark. Personally I wish that both sides of every coin
had been shown but I realize that this would have a downside that might make the book less desirable in other ways. It is hard to review a book according to how well it fits the needs of someone else. I loved the anecdotal parts including the box on each ruler discussing how difficult or expensive it would be to add that ruler to your
collection.
I regret the
typos and other errors but I did not seek out the ones that I found. It seems they sought me out and made me crazy with frustration. Nowhere near all I found made it into this review. Too many
typos and other errors were missed in the proofreading. Proofreading and fact checking this book would be a monumental task (years for one person). Should it have been delayed again and again as updates piled up or was the author right to be proud of the achievement and turn it loose on the world? Owners will want to write in corrections as problems are found. I regret most the decisions like the plutoing of anonymous coins and the seeming aversion to opportunities to be a little educational where it would
help without being painful. New collectors needing
help understanding basics of the
identification of the Philips, the shared legends of
Caracalla and
Elagabalus or the Maximi(a)nus mess will need to look elsewhere for assistance.
I loved the Preface. In it the author summed up the ultimate truth of the matter when he said that only an ‘insane idiot’ would undertake a project like this. You can’t argue with such logic.
Still it is a pleasant
type of insanity that produces a book so pretty even if there are low points in the proofing and decisions that were made exactly the opposite of the way you would have done your book. The fact remains that it was not my book and I should not expect it to meet my every wish.
Here is the question: Do you need
ERIC II? Perhaps. Do you need to know yet another
catalog number for your coins? Are you the sort that lives to have
cross reference numbers for every coin you own? Do you agree with the author’s implication that the individual coin is what counts but an overall understanding of the big picture is secondary? Do you want
RIC numbers but don’t want to buy
RIC? I really don’t care what number is assigned to a coin but I love to see other related information and how the coins fit in with other coins to make the numismatic
history of the times. If you find that boring or beyond your level of interest, perhaps
ERIC II is everything you have been wanting.
Don’t get me wrong: There is a lot of information in the book. There is a lot of interesting material sandwiched between all those columns of numbers. The non-numismatic anecdotal information is fun. I wish there were more background numismatic information beyond the lists and the comments on how much it will cost to add the coin to your
collection.
No coin book, no website, no personal conversation can be relied upon to be without error and
ERIC II has weak spots that will require critical evaluation rather than slavish acceptance. It is an admirable effort with much more
good than bad. Of course, I wish it were perfect; I wish errors were harder to find. Who wouldn’t? I
hope enough people out there are
still buying coin books to make
writing them less than total and
complete idiocy. I can think of hundreds of worse uses for $150 than
buying this book. I encourage each of you to consider whether this huge effort fits your needs. While it costs twice as much as
ERIC I, it is more than twice as
good so owners who liked the old version may be expected to love the new one. There is a lot of information present even if some of it requires more
work to extract than we might like. There are errors - possibly a lot of them - but how many
good listings are we willing to give up for fear of finding one of the problems? No one will be
writing a better book of its kind anytime soon so if you want anything remotely like this
work, get it while you can. As of this date (31 August 2010) pre orders are being taken for the book which should arrive as early as October. Updates, photos and ordering information can be found on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Encyclopedia-of-Roman-Imperial-Coins/362124848605