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RIC VII helmeted bust types

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Heliodromus:
RIC VII's helmeted-bust descriptions leave a lot to be desired, both in terms of understanding what they are actually referring to, and how to attribute in case of coins not matching the canonical bust descriptions (particularly an issue for Rome 318-319 AD, when there is a profusion of helmet varieties seen on the coins).

There are three types of helmet portrayed on RIC VII coins:

1) Up to c.318 AD there's a helmet with a protruding cap-like peak, same as we see in RIC VI. A RIC VII note on p.348 refers to this as an "archaic" or "Athene" helmet, but it doesn't seem to correspond to any real type of helmet I've been able to find photos of. It really seems to be a "pseudo-Corinthan" helmet, mirroring the appearance of Athena's pushed-back Corinthian helmet, while not actually being one.

2) From c.318-319 AD there are varieties of ridge helmet, as seen on the VLPP coin type. This is a period correct helmet type. It is bowl-shaped, constructed from two halves, or four quarters, joined together at the top with a ridge-like seam. There are a number of museum specimens of this helmet type, such as the ones from Berkasovo and Intercisa.

3) From c.319 AD onwards there's a helmet with what RIC calls a visor, but is probably a fixed upright browband. This is sometimes referred to as an Attic helmet (as seen on later depictions of Athena, such as on the new-style owls), or could be called a praetorian helmet based on it's depiction on the praetorian relief. This helmet type is also seen on the arch of Constantine.

There's a couple of exceptions to the above timeline, but it gives the big picture.

These helmets are usually depicted with some type of crest - either a tall feather crest, or more often a (typically lower-lying) horsehair one.

Now, RIC gives us three basic helmeted bust varieties (D2, D6 & D7), which you might expect (if you didn't know better) to correspond to the three types of helmet... but of course they don't. For some reason RIC lumps the unrelated helmet types 1) and 3) together as bust type D2, described just as "helmet", then uses bust types D6 and D7 to differentiate two varieties of ridge-helmeted bust.

The D6 and D7 busts are described as:

D6: laureate, helmet

D7: high-crested helmet (bowl-shaped)

As long as you have a coin that only matches one of these descriptions then this is at least clear enough to attribute by, but what if your coin matches both, or neither, or you're just not sure (is it a "high" crest or not ?). It turns out there's enough information in RIC (by way of attributed museum specimens - thanks Lech!) to see how RIC (Patrick Bruun) intended it, which is ultimately to ignore everything else and just look for presence of a laurel wreath on the helmet (=D6), or not (=D7).

If we assume the canonical D6 and D7 descriptions refer to the most frequently encountered coins, then it appears that "high-crested" really means feather-crested as opposed to horsehair-crested, but given the above you can in fact ignore crest type altogether and just attribute based on laureate or not. I'm not sure this is the most insightful way to distinguish the helmet varieties, but seeing as the outliers are mostly transitional it doesn't make much difference.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so since RIC doesn't give us one, here's how to attribute RIC VII helmet types. The quoted descriptions are RIC's bust descriptions, and the snarky comments are my own.

Lech Stępniewski:
Yes, Ben, now I completely agree: this is exactly Bruun's typology.

But don't be so mean to him. He really did a great job. I know - there are many vague descriptions, inconsistencies, errors, typos etc. but it is still "the Bible" of Constantinian coinage. (the real Bible is also not perfect; there are variants of text, interpolations, errors etc.)

And by the way: I don't have this nice PAX PERPETVA on my page. Would you be so kind to send me the best picture you have with the data? And of course it would be great if you add any other pictures of unlisted coins which are not attested on "Not in RIC".

Heliodromus:
Here's my Pax - 19mm 3.1g. Of course this is the "archaic" (aka pseudo-Corinthian) variety of D2 bust, therefore RIC 143. RIC incorrectly lists this as a D6 bust, but the plate picture shows the Vienna coin which is an archaic helmet (D2) as expected.

I also recently acquired this Romae Aeternae, 18mm 3.64g, which appears to be an obverse die link to the Pax. Since RIC doesn't differentiate the helmet types, this would be considered as RIC 146 (D2), although perhaps better considered as unlisted given the sequencing. Bruun's lumping together of the earliest and latest helmet types as "D2" really hides the structure of the coinage. A "real" D2 with swirly decorations and browband/visor (as on my Eros coin, above, comes late in the sequence, while this "archaic" one comes from the beginning of the sequence, as can be seen by the die link.

Of course RIC VII is a tremendous work - hard to imagine doing it without computers or digital cameras, although nonetheless full of errors and omissions. I tend to think of Patrick Bruun as a bit like former British PM Margaret Thatcher (who was torpedoing the Belgrano when I was in college), or perhaps Colonel Kurtz from the movie "Apocalypse Now" ... both started out strong, then eventually went stark raving bonkers due to having been in power for too long. Incidentally, I'm a software developer, and one of the early things I worked on in the early 80's (a ROM-based version of Pascal for the BBC micro) was proudly shown to Margaret Thatcher by the British Standards Institute (BSI) as an example of British innovation!

Bruun's pinnacle of insanity, as far as I'm concerned, is his "The Heraclean Coinage of Maximinus Daza. A Drastic Proposal". Certainly drastic!

Lech Stępniewski:
First of all, thanks for the pictures. Coins from your great collection are always welcome.


--- Quote from: Heliodromus on November 06, 2021, 10:41:53 am ---Bruun's lumping together of the earliest and latest helmet types as "D2" really hides the structure of the coinage.

--- End quote ---

I agree. I think that Bruun's greatest mistake are pages 88-91, i.e. "Tabulated Key". The solution adopted in the volume VI would be much better: separate descriptions of busts for group of connected issues. It would then be easier to take into account the specifics of each mint and its evolution.


--- Quote from: Heliodromus on November 06, 2021, 10:41:53 am ---Bruun's pinnacle of insanity, as far as I'm concerned, is his "The Heraclean Coinage of Maximinus Daza. A Drastic Proposal". Certainly drastic!

--- End quote ---

My opinion about Bruun's drastic proposal is not so drastic as yours. He at least pointed out that there is a problem with the status of Heraclea after Galerius' death, especially when compared to Siscia and Thessallonica. Maybe Licinius was not sure if he wanted to have a mint so close to the frontier?


--- Quote from: Heliodromus on November 06, 2021, 10:41:53 am ---I tend to think of Patrick Bruun as a bit like former British PM Margaret Thatcher (who was torpedoing the Belgrano when I was in college)

--- End quote ---

I am now fully aware that our perspectives are different but I can't help that comparing someone to Margaret Thatcher sounds to me like a greatest praise. In 80's many people in Poland (and so did I) constantly thought of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as some kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi. You know: "Help us, Maggie and Ronnie, you are our only hope to crush the Empire".

Heliodromus:

--- Quote ---I am now fully aware that our perspectives are different but I can't help that comparing someone to Margaret Thatcher sounds to me like a greatest praise. In 80's many people in Poland (and so did I) constantly thought of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as some kind of Obi-Wan Kenobi. You know: "Help us, Maggie and Ronnie, you are our only hope to crush the Empire".
--- End quote ---

Well, she started out very strong for sure, although I'm thinking more of her domestic policies, but she was of course Reagan's closest ally. I was also fond of Reagan - I think he played the role of president (perhaps how he thought of it, being a movie star ?) to perfection - being more cheerleader than policy wonk. His "star wars" program, which everyone knew was really impossible, nonetheless deserves some credit for crippling the USSR by helping to bankrupt it.

I can understand how growing up in Poland this would have been rather more personal to you than to me in the UK. Of course your namesake, Lech Walesa, deserves a very large part of the credit for helping destroy the death star. I used to work with a Polish guy, in the US, who reported directly to Lech as a Solidarnosc leader.

I've visited Poland a few times, since my wife is from Belarus, and originally only had white "travel papers" since her soviet passport became invalid when the empire collapsed. We didn't dare go to Belarus initially, so would meet her family in Warsaw instead. We used to stay in a hotel opposite that great example of soviet architecture, "Stalin's Penis".  :)

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