I have to tell you I really do not enjoy using Crawford and I don't think you're going to miss it for the price unless you are a real student of the issues. It's multiple books so you have to refer back and forth and I find the academic layout of it confusing and, well, simply unpleasant. It's probably because I'm a product of American public schools and I can't read well. Regardless, my go-to books for Republican and Imperatorial coins are Sydenham and Sear.
So, I need to respond to this comment. I can't alter carthago's opinion based on his current experience, but I can add some information that will perhaps
help get more value from coin books.
A few starting facts about
other books:
- Crawford's
RRC doesn't give a general historical overview of the coinage, but such an historical overview is given in Crawford's later Coinage and
Money under the
Roman Republic, published 1985, which discusses each period of the coinage, illustrates typical coins, and discusses each region of the mediterranean
- The British Museum
catalogue (
BMCRR,
Grueber) has more coverage of the old historical stories than
Crawford. It isn't that
Crawford didn't know these stories - he in fact encouraged the BM to reprint the book in 1970. It's that he didn't think it worthwhile to waste space repeating old stories that were already well covered in
other books-
Sydenham, whilst giving a decent listing of the
Republican coins, is completely out-dated as regards arrangement, dating, periods, logic etc. and as it also has no discussion of historical stories, it's really of no value at all anymore, except for the purpose of having an inexpensive book that lists all the
types in a lot of detail, and also that the original 1952 printing has nice plates.
What about
Crawford? It's apparently a tough book to start with, but if you understand its arrangement it becomes quickly very convenient.
The main
catalogue (pages 131-546) has a consistent layout for each series.
In the first line, it gives reference to
other books (B. =
Babelon, S. =
Sydenham, RE = Pauly's
german language encyplopaedia for information about the person/family, Bf. = Bahrfeldt's discussions on Roman coinage in 3 volumes, 1897-1918).
It also says "see above" and sometimes "below".
"see above" gives the page number where the dating of the issue is discussed on pages 3-102
"below" gives the page number where
forgeries or mis-read coins are discussed on pages 546-566.
The reason that the dating is discussed on a different page is because dating is usually discussed for groups of coins at the one time. So it saves a lot of space to refer to a single dating discussion.
Once you realise what "see above" and "see below" refer to, it becomes a lot easier.
Each coin has a full description. It also refers to a single example of an actual coin of this
type. So when it says e.g.
BMCRR Rome 926, that means that number 926 in the British Museum
catalogue is this actual coin. Crawford's default reference is to the British Museum
catalogue, so if you have that too (as I recommend) you've also got access to usually more historical notes.
Below the coin listings there is then a specific discussion of the issue, usually with a focus on the history of the moneyer or of the coin
type.
Crawford discusses the
types only where he has something interesting to say and add to what
BMCRR (
Grueber) and many others have said.
The advantage of this format, is that you have access to an incredible amount of information in a very short listing.
Sydenham doesn't have even a small fraction of the sheer information value that
Crawford has in his
catalogue issues. Yes, the "above" and "below" references take a
bit of getting used to, but once you've used them a few times, you get used to flicking back to see the dating logic discussion, and being prepared to open
BMCRR for extra historical notes.
Sydenham doesn't have this information at all, not even by reference!
The first 100 pages of volume 1 is a systematic walk through the dating, decade by decade, supported by
hoard tables that show which coins are found in
hoards before which other coins. There is nothing complex about the discussion, it's commonsense. 'this
comes before that because of absence from
hoards of that, and this goes with the other because of the same engraving
style". No rocket science. I tend to read and re-read and re-re-read pages 3 to 35 because those pages cover the second Punic war and the introduction of the
denarius. Once you are used to his way of
writing, you will find him thorough and correct, and never vague, and never contradictory. There is an immense amount if information packed into these first 100 pages.
Volume 2 has the plates, and also a series of essays on general subjects - for examples Minting Authority, Minting Techniques etc. You rarely refer to the text of volume 2, but it's nice to read the essays within every five years or so. The coins that illustrate the plates were carefully chosen to be typical of the series and era, for example his
choice of bronzes shows typical prow designs and styles of a given era, hence helping guide you to the coinage of the entire era.
The main stumbling block with
Crawford is the sheer density of information. But once you have a road-map and understand how the
catalogue section works, it becomes easy and natural to use; in terms of information density, the sheer amount of knowledge within, or referred to, is staggering. There's probably 10 times as much information in
Crawford as in
Sydenham. It's worth working out how it works.
