It will be impossible to hold back the tide among collectors, but may I object once more that "celator" does not mean "die engraver" in Latin, so should not be given that meaning in English?
According to
Seltman, Masterpieces of Greek Coinage, pp. 8-9, the artists who enjoyed the highest reputation in
Greece were those "who worked delicately in precious stones, ivory, gold, silver and bronze," who were called "toreutai" in Greek and "caelatores" in Latin.
These artists were NOT die engravers, but
Seltman thinks that some Greek cities employed them, for example Kimon at
Syracuse, to engrave their finest dies.
NO ancient source, as far as I am aware, calls a die engraver a "celator". In the Trajanic
mint inscriptions, for example, die engravers are called "scalptores" or "signatores", and there is no mention of "caelatores".
The mistake of misinterpreting what
Seltman said and thinking that ALL die engravers could be called "celators" apparently goes back to
Wayne Sayles, who when founding
his magazine for ancient coin collectors in 1987 decided to call it
the Celator and adopted the following motto: "
The Celator is named for and dedicated to the coin die-engravers of
antiquity whose art remains as powerful and appealing today as in their own time."
Since then "celator" has become a very widespread word for "die engraver" among collectors, but few academic or museum numismatists make this mistake!
