Ave!
Late Roman Bronze Coinage - An attribution guide for poorly preserved coins - by Guido Bruck
Wow!
We've had the scarce original 1961 German issue for years and found it a boon for attributing coins as far as my understanding German. How happy for all of you that this awesome guide has been republished and translated into English!
It is very easy to use with only two pages of instructions and will only take you a few minutes to find the reverse and compare it to the requisite obverse portrait. After that, you'll only need to refer to the detailed drawings to hone down your complete attribution, even if the exergue is missing! The line drawings are so precise that you'll actually be able to "mint attribute" Camp-gate issues just from the blocks and form of the towers and FEL TEMP REPARATIO issues by the 'fallen horseman' details. This is really a wonderful book. The more I read it, the more I learn.
FYI - I have a very rare Licinius II Trier mint issue (RIC R5) in my personal collection with a very odd left facing portrait that I couldn't exactly pin down via RIC. I now know that the portrait is refered to as wearing a 'fur-trimmed pteryges' and only from the Trier mint. For me, that alone was worth the price of the book!
This is one of those books that you'll use over and over and over, trust me. For a short tutorial, please visit here: http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/7580855/lrbc-guide-for-poorly-preserved-coins?da=y
"In the course of the fourth century, millions of bronze coins were struck in the Roman Empire: an area extending from modern Britain to Egypt. The iconography present in these modest remnants of a distant past provides a fascinating insight into the realities, hopes and desires not only of the common people, but also of those who ruled over them. It is possible to identify with a remarkable degree of precision where, when and by whom coins of this period were struck. Traditional numismatic works rely heavily on a textual description and assume that one has a perfectly preserved specimen. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their age, the majority of coins encountered are worn or incomplete, making identification difficult. However, as demonstrated by this work, a closer study of their composition and iconography yields more than enough information to identify all but the most poorly preserved specimens. Translation of Die spätrömische Kupferprägung - Ein Bestimmungsbuch für schlecht erhaltene Münzen (1961)."
This book was originally published in German in 1961 and has been recently translated to English by our friend Alisdair Menzies. This book is brand new.
"Late Roman Bronze Coinage"
ISBN 978-1502926012. Softcover 148 pp.
