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Rainer Albert - Münzen der Röm. Republik - Frage

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Syltorian:
Hallo,

Ich bin jetzt schon mehrmals dem Buch "Die Münzen der Römischen Republik" von Rainer Albert begegnet (leider ohne die Gelegenheit zu haben, auch mal rein zu schauen).

Kann mir bitte jemand sagen, ob es sich lohnt dieses Buch zu kaufen, wenn man bereits Sear (Roman Coins and their Values) und Seaby (Roman Silver Coins) besitzt? Es geht mir hauptsächlich um historische Informationen zu den Münzmeistern und Münzbildern - weitaus weniger, falls überhaupt, um einen weiteren Katalog im Sinne der oben genannten englischen Bücher oder um bessere Abbildungen.

Besten Dank!

areich:
Zu den interessanteren Münzen gibt es ein bis drei Sätze an Hintergrundinformationen (vielleicht zu 20% der Münzen?), dazu eine Liste (mehr nicht) der Münzmeister. Ich kann es nicht mit den anderen genannten Büchern vergleichen. Meins war ein Impulskauf und bis eben noch verschweißt.  ;D Aber ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, daß es in den anderen Büchern weniger Informationen zu den Münzen gibt.

Syltorian:
Danke, Areich! Wurde das Buch jetzt extra entsiegelt um mir zu helfen ?  ;D

Das hört sich an, als wäre es in etwa die deutsche Variante der von mir angeführten Bücher. Sear RCV had eben auch nur ein paar Einleitungstexte, und kurze Kommentare zu einigen der Münzen. Gut als Referenz und Nachschlagewerk, aber für die Geschichte der einzelnen Münzen bleibts dann doch bei der eigenen Recherche, da Grueber (1910) wohl etwas in die Jahre gekommen ist. Macht ja auch Spass.

Sonst muss ich auf Crawford sparen... ;D

Andrew McCabe:

--- Quote from: Syltorian on November 26, 2010, 01:16:34 pm ---Hallo,

Ich bin jetzt schon mehrmals dem Buch "Die Münzen der Römischen Republik" von Rainer Albert begegnet (leider ohne die Gelegenheit zu haben, auch mal rein zu schauen).

Kann mir bitte jemand sagen, ob es sich lohnt dieses Buch zu kaufen, wenn man bereits Sear (Roman Coins and their Values) und Seaby (Roman Silver Coins) besitzt? Es geht mir hauptsächlich um historische Informationen zu den Münzmeistern und Münzbildern - weitaus weniger, falls überhaupt, um einen weiteren Katalog im Sinne der oben genannten englischen Bücher oder um bessere Abbildungen.

Besten Dank!



--- End quote ---

Hi - Albert is a much better book than Sear (not difficult) although both have flaws: here is what I say in my review when comparing it with Sear: http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/Introductory.html#handbooks

"Die Munzen der Römischen Republik. R. Albert, 2003
I have almost the reverse feeling with Albert’s catalogue as with Sear RCV1.    It’s a priced catalogue exactly as I would design it – the coins are presented in chronological order; silver, bronze, aes grave and gold together, almost all major silver types including important rarities are illustrated as well as a large and representative cross-section of the bronzes, the photographs and printing are very high quality, as is the quality of the illustrated coins, all taken from recent high-end auctions, and there are brief historical notes throughout. The early denarius coinages and early bronzes, as well as gold, often neglected in introductory handbooks, are particularly well presented. Nevertheless it is let down by several defects of accuracy. Several illustrations are misattributed, mostly from the early Republic involving easily confused coins, for example the Aes Grave issues with or without the sickle or club marks, or early Luceria issues confused with later ones. I believe this was generally due to mistakes in the original auction listings, but a handbook made for collectors, who may never own Crawford, demands accuracy. A further defect is that he applies the chronological order far too literally, for example separating those coins listed in Crawford as "211 to 209BC", from those listed as "211 to 208BC". This is not helpful as it disrupts the Crawford series numbering making coins difficult to find, but it also gives a false impression of numismatic accuracy as all these dates have a considerable uncertainty in each direction. Strangely, as with Sear RCV, I have an almost emotional need for both authors to do a better catalogue, because these handbooks are the first face any collector sees to the Roman Republic, and I want to attract collectors to my abiding interest, through books that are both well laid out and accurate. German language, but that does not detract from navigation as the pictures tell the story. In print and inexpensive. If you already own RCV1 I do still recommend you also buy Albert for a different way of seeing the coins of the Republic."

Here is what I said about Sear: http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/Catalogues.html#HCRI

"RCV1: Roman Coins and their Values, 5th edition Volume 1, David Sear, 2000
The current standard collectors reference, I hesitantly list this as essential, but there is no other English language publication that is as accessible or with the coverage of the Republican series as RCV1. However it has many defects and it does not measure up well against its eminent predecessors. Despite much increased coverage, with 230 pages on the Republic, the story of the coinage is quite unclear due to the separation of silver from bronze, and the bronze coins are sorted by denomination rather than issuer, which is inefficient on space as well as requiring a lot of leafing back and forward. Whilst RCV1 lists a majority of the Republican silver coin types, the anonymous types from 214-150BC are almost entirely missing at least so far as individual listings are concerned. It bundles them into large undifferentiated buckets, for example catalogue number 39 includes over 65 entirely separate silver issues made in different decades and many different mints. The early anonymous silver are amongst the most popular collecting themes in the Republic so this odd arrangement has rendered RSC1, a 60 year old book, still indispensible and indeed the latter was recently reprinted to reflect this. In its favour, the comprehensive struck bronzes listings, the aes grave, as well as comprehensive listings of silver after 150BC should be very useful for collectors who do not yet own Crawford. Perversely however the bronze listings hit the other extreme of overcoverage. My bronzes rarity guide shows that as much as half the listed issues are very rare, with each known in only a handful of examples. It is only dispiriting to a collector to see rare issues listed at $100 catalogue price in RCV1 yet in practice entirely unobtainable in the market, at any price. Few bronzes are illustrated and I suspect most readers never open the bronzes pages. The Republican era would also have greatly benefited from the type of historic snapshots that are presented throughout the Imperatorial and Imperial eras of the same book. A pen portrait of the second Punic war or Marius or the Gracchi would surely attract readers. The price indications are very well-judged and the book is extremely accurate, I have owned it for nearly a decade and in that time have only found a single error. As a serious numismatist it may be a disappointment when compared with what Rainer Albert or Fiorenzo Catalli were able to achieve in about the same number of pages, but it is still essential if English is your main language."

Catalli's handbook is very good, in some ways better than both Sear or Albert although less detailed. If your Italian is good consider it as an alternative:

"Fiorenzo Catalli; La Monetazione Romana Repubblicana; Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato – Libreria Dello Stato; Rome 2001
Good text, maps, color photos (generally blown up) of some coins and aes signatum and a catalogue of about 900 main coin types with 70 pages of plates. This is a perfectly acceptable shorter alternative to Crawford and in fact beats both RCV1 and Albert in terms of efficient layout - it brings all the coins from an issue into a single paragraph and cites key information from BMCRR and Crawford in that paragraph, though that includes dating, a subject on which really BMCRR should not be quoted. All the bronzes from an issue are listed under a single catalogue number, somewhat like in Sydenham. The abbreviated listings do not leave room for varieties, for example he lumps all the complex Luceria types under a single number that covers Crawford 97/3 through 97/28 inclusive. But it is clear and accurate within its own rule set, and the efficient layout leaves lots of room for discussion. A further bonus is quite a few original essays scattered throughout the text discussing magistrates, dating of issues, the origin of Roman coinage, various theories on the introduction of the denarius, the excavations at Cosa and at Morgantina, Social war coinage, an excavation at a mint site with illustratoins etc. Really this is an outstanding book and I see no reason why this might not be used as your sole catalogue, assuming you don't need pricing. The one significant downside as compared with RCV1 and Albert is that the lack of detailed listings of course has downsides if you are trying to positively ID a coin you are not familiar with. The plates are excellent quality and as with Albert are based on some key auctions in the late 1990s. If this was in English I might ordinarily use it instead of Crawford, so if you can read Italian well you should certainly buy it."

Andrew McCabe:
I have just received the new edition of Rainer Albert's catalogue (2011).

It has more photographs than the previous version but it is full of errors. Countless errors. Does anyone know how I can contact Rainer Albert to prevent more errors appearing in the next version?

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