The early
BMC volumes up to their termination in 238 AD are a far better basis for determining what coins and varieties exist, than the RIC first editions for the same period.
BMC describes, primarily, the actual BM
collection, one of the best in the world. If
BMC says that the BM has a particular coin, we can be virtually certain that that coin exists; the chance of
forgeries or misdescriptions slipping through is very small. Moreover we can often check the descriptions with our own eyes, since
BMC provides illustrations of their best specimen of virtually every
reverse type in the
collection, though not of every
bust variety.
Types and varieties not in the BM
collection are also described in
BMC, usually as unnumbered entries or in footnotes. Most of these additional coins are probably also authentic and correctly described, but we are alerted to the fact that they may require confirmation. We may want to follow up the sources cited by
BMC for these coins, to judge the reliability of the authors and perhaps find illustrations of the coins.
RIC, in contrast, started out as a mere chronological rearrangement of Cohen's alphabetical listings, with
additions from the BM
collection, from some other British public and private
collections, and from recent commercial and scholarly publications. For most coins and varieties described, a
Cohen number is the sole authority cited, usually without indication of the source quoted by
Cohen. So we don't know, without checking
Cohen ourselves, whether he says the coin is in the
Paris collection, allowing us to presume that it probably exists and is correctly described, or cites some published description which may be less reliable. Moreover the early RIC volumes only illustrate a small proportion of the
types described, mainly eliminating our ability to confirm the descriptions via photographs provided by the
work itself.
RSC is a very useful and accurate compilation of the varieties described in
BMC, RIC, and
Strack, with some corrections and
additions. However, it only covers silver coins, it has far fewer illustrations than
BMC, and its densely printed pages provide little free space for
writing in new varieties!
