The fault which ruins RCV III, in my opinion, is its failure to list the coins according to the mints which are assumed to have produced them, coins of
Rome separate from those of
Lugdunum, those of
Antioch separate again, and so on. If the coins were listed by
mint, the user would soon learn the different
types, legends,
style, and other characteristics of each
mint, and would be on
his way to a proper historical understanding of the coinage.
As it is, the coins are divided by
denomination only, then listed in the alphabetical order of their
rev. legends, as in
Cohen. The
mint of each coin is mentioned, but the reader will have difficulty understanding the
mint characteristics, since a coin of
Rome is followed by one of
Lugdunum, then one of
Antioch, then another of
Rome, and so on. Such a jumbled order dissuades the reader from taking the first essential step towards really understanding the coinage, namely dividing it into groups attributable to different mints.
Forum di discussione di Numismatic in Italiano
