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Author Topic: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins  (Read 585 times)

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Offline Norman F

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On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« on: May 21, 2023, 06:23:15 am »
I would like to be able to search on line when carrying out research about Roman Imperial Coins. In particular where a coin is described as (for example) as RIC027b or RSC 009, I would like to input this data and display an image of the coin together with information.
Another type of on line search I would like to be able to do is to input a description of the obverse and reverse of a coin and find a match in the catalogue.
Are either of these searches possible?
Norman


Offline Norman F

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2023, 08:47:47 am »
Thanks Dominic, I will try that.
Norman

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2023, 09:10:42 am »
acsearch.info and right here in Forum galleries

Offline Norman F

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2023, 09:19:49 am »
Thanks Jay, there is clearly a lot of information here but I need to spend some time working out how to search it.
Norman

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2023, 12:21:10 pm »
Acsearch pulls a lot of auction info and I can usually find what I'm looking for with just a few key words.  The Forum galleries are great but they rely on the gallery owner having the right reference.  Still, for what I collect, Flavians, I find myself going to David Atherton's incredibly accurate and almost complete gallery listed by RIC and RPC numbers and easily searchable.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=11162

Offline Virgil H

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2023, 02:51:09 pm »
One caveat about acsearch and coinarchives, both auction house aggregators. I think you get more results with a free subscription to acsearch, but coinarchives gives prices realized for the coins it does show. For pure identification, acsearch is probably better. For prescreening purchases, I like coinarchives. Anyway, since these two give auction results, only coins that are worthy of being auctioned individually show up. This is an issue with some very common coins and people may think they have some rare coin because it never shows up there, but is not there because it would go for too low a price. Doing identification using group lots is not worth the effort.

I love Wildwinds. It doesn't have everything, but it is super helpful most of the time. Forum galleries are always worth a try.

One not mentioned yet is Online Coins of the Roman Empire done by the ANS: http://numismatics.org/ocre/

Virgil

Offline Altamura

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2023, 03:19:44 am »
... One not mentioned yet is Online Coins of the Roman Empire done by the ANS: http://numismatics.org/ocre/ ...
This is more or less the online version of the RIC, so for me this is the place to go  :).

Regards

Altamura

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2023, 04:50:33 am »
Warning! RIC is not error free, but Online Coins of the Roman Empire and WildWinds repeat most of RIC's errors and add many new ones (and I only check the range of RIC volumes VI and VII and mostly the varieties suspected to be unlisted in RIC).
Lech Stępniewski
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Offline mauseus

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2023, 05:26:13 am »
Hi,
Totally agree with Lech. Use of third party attributions is risky as there are some real howlers out there. Online catalogues can get you in the right place but there's nothing like the original source book for the best attribution.
Regards,

Mauseus

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2023, 06:22:07 am »
The good point is that WildWinds is fully illustrated and OCRE is mostly illustrated. So look carefully at the picture, compare with description and then consult RIC.

For example.

https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantine/_arles_RIC_VII_138var.jpg [there is something unexpected with links, so please copy THE WHOLE link and paste to your browser]



This coin is on WildWinds described as follows:

"Constantine I, AE follis. Arles. 317 AD. IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right. / SOLI INV-I-CTO COMITI, Sol standing right, head left, chlamys across left shoulder, holding globe and raising right hand. R-S across fields. Mintmark PARL. RIC VII Arles 138 var (officina). Unlisted officina for this issue."

This description is almost correct, but if you consult RIC (vol. VII, p. 247) you will see that RIC lists for this type officinae P, S, and T - and P is the most common one.

Another example from WildWinds

https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantine/_antioch_RIC_VI_166var.jpg


Description:
"Constantine I, AE follis, Antioch. AD 312. IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG, laureate bust left, wearing trabea (imperial mantle), holding globe in left hand, mappa in right hand / IOVI CON-SERVATORI AVGG, Jupiter standing left, chlamys over left shoulder, falling low behind, holding Victory on globe and sceptre. Star-S across fields. Mintmark ANT. RIC VI Antioch 166 var (obv legend and bust type, and rev. legend)."

This coin is in fact unlisted but assumption that with different legends and bust type it is variety of "RIC VI Antioch 166" is ridiculous. Actually, it belongs to RIC VII and should be listed before ANTIOCH 24 (which is a similar type listed for Licinius I).

And the last example (note: all examples are Constantine, "A" mints, and coins marked as var.)

https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantine/_antioch_RIC_VII_079_var.jpg


Description
Constantine I AE17 follis. Antioch, AD 331 and 333-334. CONSTANTINVS AVG, laurel and square rosette-diademed head right. / PROVIDENTIAE AVGG, campgate with 11 layers, two turrets, no door, star above, dot in doorway (possibly simply a centering mark). Δ-E across fields. Mintmark SMANT. RIC VII Antioch 79 var (headwear).

But in RIC VII one can easily find (p. 691) that in this case dot in doorway is NOT a centering mark and this coin is not "RIC VII Antioch 79 var (headwear)" but regular RIC VII ANTIOCH 81.
Lech Stępniewski
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Offline Serendipity

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #11 on: May 22, 2023, 02:37:14 pm »
I've got a Trajan denarius which has received a lot of comments and praise. I had no idea that the auction house had completely misattributed the denarius until I read a post about Trajan denarii on the Forum. It was thanks and only thanks to the professionalism of the Forum that I was able to correctly attribute the Trajan denarius. Unfortunately, the misattributed information is still circulating in the acsearch and online. It's not the first time that I've encountered these misattributions from so-called reputable dealers and auction houses.

Offline Lech Stępniewski

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #12 on: May 22, 2023, 02:47:48 pm »
It's not the first time that I've encountered these misattributions from so-called reputable dealers and auction houses.

I'm not excusing them, but that's what happens when you have several thousand coins to describe for the upcoming auction. But thanks to this, someone can later find a real hidden gem at such an auction. Quite a few coins on the "Not in RIC" page are coins that had the wrong attribution at auction.
Lech Stępniewski
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Poland

Offline Norman F

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Re: On line catalogue of Roman Imperial Coins
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2023, 10:59:20 am »
Thanks everybody for your help. I will try all your suggestions.

Norman

 

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