I’m both intrigued and puzzled as a newbie about how
ancient coins are catalogued. I would love to
catalogue my coins in the same precise way. You’ve got, for example, two
Hadrian denarii which were minted in
Rome, 136 A.D., and which feature
Hadrian’s
bust on the
obverse and the
Roman goddess
Fides on the
reverse. The only difference between the two is that in one of the
denarii Hadrian is not wearing
his laureate. Both share the same reference
SRCV II 3492.
To avoid confusion, I can understand why the laureate
head right is mentioned as a variant in the
Hadrian denarius without
his laureate,
SRCV II 3492
var. (laureate). However, the other
Hadrian denarius with
his laureate is just referred to as
SRCV II 3492 and makes no mention of the
bare head right variant. Perhaps cataloguing
ancient coins is not as mystifying as it looks and the cataloguer simply forgot to mention the
bare head right variant or wasn’t aware of it.
I’m hoping to
catalogue my own
Hadrian denarius without
his laureate as
SRCV II 3513
var. (laureate) in order to distinguish it from another similar
Hadrian denarius with
his laureate. They both share the same
RIC II reference
RIC II 257. However, the
Hadrian denarius with
his laureate doesn’t seem to have a
SRCV II reference. In that case, should the
RIC II be used to refer to the variants, i.e.
RIC II 257
var. (laureate) or
var. (
bare head). One auctioneer got so confused between the two
Hadrian denarii that he unintentionally catalogued the laureate
head right
denarius as
SRCV II 3513.
