http://scaddenda.orgQUOTE:
In 2002 and 2008 the
American Numismatic Society and Classical Numismatic Group published the two parts of
Seleucid Coins: A Comprehensive
Catalogue, by Arthur Houghton, Catharine Lorber, and Oliver Hoover. The first
part, by
Houghton and Lorber, presented and interpreted all the numismatic material for Seleucus I to Antiochus III known up to 2002. The second
part, by Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover, did the same for the
Seleucid kings from Seleucus IV to Antiochus XIII. In total, more than 2,491 primary coin
types were published in these volumes.
No sooner
had these important books come out in print than new
types and varieties began to appear at the rate of almost 100 a year. This rapid growth of material made necessary the development of a system that could keep up with the coins. The
Seleucid Coins Addenda System (SCADS) is intended to provide online access to the new material that has appeared since 2008. As there is no indication that the flow of previously unrecorded
types and varieties will stop anytime soon, it is expected that the SCADS database will continue to grow over time. Interested parties will be instantly notified of new
additions to the database through alerts on Facebook, Twitter, and direct email subscription.
The coins in the SCADS database are categorized by ruler, making it easy for users to find all new entries for a particular
king with a single click. Extensive tagging of entry content allows for full searchability. Thus, for example, a user interested in all new material depicting
Apollo would simply enter “
Apollo” as the
search criterion and SCADS would provide all the relevant entries. If a user was interested only in
Apollo on issues of bronze
denomination C, “
denomination C” could be added to narrow down the
search. The coins in the database have all been given a unique
catalogue number (SCADS1, SCADS2, SCADS3, etc.) for ease of reference, but these only reflect the order of entry and are not tied to the numbering system used in the
Seleucid Coins volumes.
The weblog (blog) format makes SCADS a unique tool in that it allows the community of users to annotate records. For example, a user who owns a second example of a coin in the database might leave a comment indicating the existence of the additional specimen. Likewise, another user might leave some insight about a coin. In this way, not only does SCADS present the
new coins, but it offers opportunity for continued discussion within the
Seleucid numismatic community. SCADS is designed to allow necessary changes or improvements to entries and to allow the insertion of new material that may appear. Users are encouraged to comment on individual entries or suggest
additions or changes they believe would add to the content of the SCADS website.
This site is maintained by Oliver D. Hoover, a co-author of
Seleucid Coins,
Part II, and a widely published scholar on various aspects of
Seleucid numismatics, chronology, and
history. Hoover is currently an Adjunct Curator of the
American Numismatic Society and Managing Editor of the
American Journal of Numismatics. He is also the author behind Classical Numismatic Group’s ongoing Handbook of Greek Coinage series.
The entries included in SCADS would not have been possible without the contribution of numerous individuals — curators of
collections, scholars, collectors,
members of the trade, and others with technical or other expertise. For their contributions to the content of SCADS, we wish to cite in particular the
help of Morten Andersen,
Donald Ariel, G. R. F.
Assar, Osmund
Bopearachchi, Bradley Bowlin, Frédérique
Duyrat, François de Callataÿ, Edward
Cohen, Frédérique
Duyrat, Wolfgang
Fischer-Bossert, Haim Gitler, Jay Guberman, Panagiotis Iossif, Mary Lannin, John Lavender, Catharine Lorber, Laure
Marest-Caffey, Andrew
Meadows, Tom
Miller, Brad
Nelson, Ziad
Sawaya, Shanna
Schmidt, Elena Stolyarik, Danny Syon, Lloyd
Taylor, Petr Vesely, Georges Voulgaridis, and Nicholas
Wright. We are especially grateful to Ute
Wartenberg Kagan, who has been a source of great encouragement and advice and who has always made the
Seleucid collection of the
American Numismatic Society available for study. Special recognition is also due to
Victor England and
CNG,
Inc., whose archives have provided many of the outstanding coin images shown here and are a model for others to follow.
For technical and editorial expertise, we thank Chris Hopkins, Andrew Houghton, Mary Lannin, and John Lavender. We also wish to give special thanks to our friend and colleague Catharine Lorber, who established, with
Seleucid Coins, the model for the entries included here, and who has provided invaluable advice and commentary with respect to this project.
