What is your best Roman coins website tip?

[Coinmaster]

If you could share one website tip on Roman coins (beside this great forum :-)) what would it be?

My tip to share is this great website with superb background info about Roman emperors and relatives, etc.:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210921115830/http://www.roman-emperors.org/alphin.htm#a-inx.

 

[LONGINUS]

I use:

 https://www.acsearch.info 

most frequently

Edited October 23, 2022 by LONGINUS

[CPK]

I use the RPC and RIC online databases routinely for attribution. Also Wildwinds.

RPC (Roman Provincial Coinage) = RPC — Home (ox.ac.uk)

RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) = Online Coins of the Roman Empire (numismatics.org)

wildwinds = Ancient Coins: Roman, Greek, Byzantine and Celtic Numismatic Reference for Attribution and Values (wildwinds.com)

NumisWiki is a good resource for all kinds of information on ancient coins and coin collecting:

Homepage - NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project (forumancientcoins.com)

 

[sand]

1 hour ago, LONGINUS said:

I use https://www.acsearch.info most frequently

I also like ACsearch. You may have to sign up (I don't remember), but it's free, unless you want to know the hammer prices.

Coin search : https://www.acsearch.info/ 

Auction search : https://www.acsearch.info/auctions.html 

Edited October 22, 2022 by sand

[DonnaML]

I have nothing to add at the moment to the Roman Imperial and Provincial websites posted, except to point out that NumisWiki is also a very useful resource for finding links to published books that are available online, such as the first four volumes of BMCRE [British Museum Coins of the Roman Empire](through Commodus) -- which I actually find easier to use than the British Museum website itself.

In case you have any interest in Roman Republican coins as well, I have to admit that I rely primarily on actual hard copy books for Republican coins -- including Crawford, BMCRR (especially Vol. I), the two Harlan books (for the limited period they cover, and more for iconography and historical interpretations than for dating), a book by Mattingly called "From Coins to History" collecting various articles, Liv Mariah Yarrow's recent book The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021), etc. Nobody really consults or cites Sydenham anymore!

But I do use a number of online resources as well, such as http://numismatics.org/crro/ (Coins of the Roman Republic Online), which follows Crawford's numbering system and also incorporates the Schaefer Republican Die Project; Andrew McCabe's website, also following Crawford numbers, at http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/ (including photos of his "Ahala Collection" and discussions of the coins); Liv Yarrow's extremely informative blog  at https://livyarrow.org/ ; and of course all sorts of more specialized articles on various subjects like Hersh's masssive corpus of the Piso Frugi junior issues (Hersh, Charles A., “A Study of the Coinage of the Moneyer C. Calpurnius Piso L.f. Frugi,” The Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, Vol. 16 at pp. 7-63 (1976) [sorry, I didn't save the link after I downloaded the article]), Hersh & Walker's 1984 article on the Mesagne Hoard (Charles Hersh and Alan Walker, “The Mesagne Hoard,” Museum Notes (American Numismatic Society), 1984, Vol. 29 pp. 103-134 (1984), Kris Lockyear's article on Late Republican coin hoards [Kris Lockyear, Patterns and Process in Late Roman Republican Coin Hoards, 157-2 BC (British Archaeological Reports 2008) (available at https://www.academia.edu/630046/Patterns_and_process_in_late_Roman_Republican_coin_hoards_157_2_BC)], and so on.

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by DonnaML

[Roman Collector]

There is no one "best" site. The answer depends on what specific question you are trying to answer. So far, you've been given online catalogs and attribution tools. These have their place, and I would certainly put the British Museum collection, acsearchinfo, OCRE, RPC online, and Wildwinds on the list of best sites for that sort of thing.

And I certainly hope your question is more insightful than "how much is it worth?"

But there's more to ancient coin collecting than putting a catalog number alongside a coin. You want to learn about coins in general -- how they are made, what purpose they served in the economy, why any particular issue was struck, and so on. Simply having a catalog number doesn't help you at all with that sort of thing. For that, you need sites like @dougsmit's educational page.

Let us know what type of coins you collect and what specific things you are trying to learn and we'll have a much better idea of which sites to recommend.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Roman Collector

[John Conduitt]

If you do want hammer prices (such as to answer questions like - how much might that cost me?), you can use https://www.coinarchives.com. It has ancient and world sections.

Google can answer most questions - obviously, via the vast number of excellent but very specific web pages, articles and books it indexes - and the image gallery is a great tool for identification.

[DonnaML]

3 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

If you do want hammer prices (such as to answer questions like - how much might that cost me?), you can use https://www.coinarchives.com. It has ancient and world sections.

Google can answer most questions - obviously, via the vast number of excellent but very specific web pages, articles and books it indexes - and the image gallery is a great tool for identification.

Coin Archives only gives results for the last six months unless you have a membership, and it's considerably more expensive to join than acsearch.  I believe that the auction platforms like sixbid and numisbids and also biddr have historical archives with prices that are free, but of course they don't go back as far as a place like acsearch, which has comprehensive results from the last decade, and quite a few going back about 20 years. The CNG archive also goes back 15-20 years, but of course it's limited to sales made by CNG itself.

[Cordoba]

5 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Coin Archives only gives results for the last six months unless you have a membership, and it's considerably more expensive to join than acsearch.  I believe that the auction platforms like sixbid and numisbids and also biddr have historical archives with prices that are free, but of course they don't go back as far as a place like acsearch, which has comprehensive results from the last decade, and quite a few going back about 20 years. The CNG archive also goes back 15-20 years, but of course it's limited to sales made by CNG itself.

what i like doing is searching a coin with acsearch but looking up the auction and lot number from the result manually to find the hammer price

[Coinmaster]

My main interest is in Roman silver coins. For now mainly from Augustus onwards. But my question was just in general. There is an overwhelming lot of websites, so I am just curious what kind of sites you're using (for whatever purpose: information, buying, research, etc.) and what you think might be relevant for others. Nothing more, nothing less. Have a nice Sunday!

 

[Sulla80]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:34 PM, Coinmaster said:

If you could share one website tip on Roman coins (beside this great forum :-)) what would it be?

I keep all of my favorites on this page: https://www.sullacoins.com/library and links for specific coin types are referenced in the appropriate Notes pages (use search to find a relevant page from more than 200).

If I could only have one webpage is would be: acsearch.info - definitely a useful page

Edited October 23, 2022 by Sulla80

[Sulla80]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:34 PM, Coinmaster said:

If you could share one website tip on Roman coins (beside this great forum :-)) what would it be?

My tip to share is this great website with superb background info about Roman emperors and relatives, etc.:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210921115830/http://www.roman-emperors.org/alphin.htm#a-inx.

 

BTW the site you mention can also be reached directly (rather than via the wayback machine) - it does look like someone it trying to improve the content so navigation is a bit quirky.

http://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/

http://www.roman-emperors.org/impindex.htm

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Sulla80

[LONGINUS]

10 hours ago, Coinmaster said:

My main interest is in Roman silver coins. For now mainly from Augustus onwards. But my question was just in general. There is an overwhelming lot of websites, so I am just curious what kind of sites you're using (for whatever purpose: information, buying, research, etc.) and what you think might be relevant for others. Nothing more, nothing less. Have a nice Sunday!

 

Thank you for posting your question , @Coinmaster — I’m learning of a lot of great reference sites that I was unaware of  ⭐⭐⭐ !

[David Atherton]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:57 PM, CPK said:

I use the RPC and RIC online databases routinely for attribution. Also Wildwinds.

RPC (Roman Provincial Coinage) = RPC — Home (ox.ac.uk)

RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) = Online Coins of the Roman Empire (numismatics.org)

wildwinds = Ancient Coins: Roman, Greek, Byzantine and Celtic Numismatic Reference for Attribution and Values (wildwinds.com)

NumisWiki is a good resource for all kinds of information on ancient coins and coin collecting:

Homepage - NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project (forumancientcoins.com)

 

It must be pointed out that OCRE, unlike RPC online, is not an official online version of RIC. Much like wildwinds, it is an independent effort based on the RIC numbering system and contains a few errors. The printed volumes are preferred.

[David Atherton]

22 hours ago, Coinmaster said:

My main interest is in Roman silver coins.

 

More Flavian silver listings than you'll find on wildwinds.

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

Arranged according to RIC by reign.

[Constantivs]

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/
 

Not the easiest to navigate - but a great informational resource that is very enjoyable to peruse. 

[Salt]

Folks already mentioned acsearch and coinarchives for looking up auction results.
https://sixbid-coin-archive.com/ is also quite good, I often find coins that are not listed on ac and coinarchives.

[SteveJBrinkman]

ACSearch is one of the best values as a subscription site for me.  For years I used ACSearch to find coins at auctions,  then searched other sites to get the hammer prices, but after trying the paid subscription a few years ago, it has become an essential resource for me so I re-up every year. I use it for estimating market value, relative scarcity of issues, and help with attribution.   My only complaint is although they catalog a large number of auction houses, There are several major auction firms that they do not cover. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by SteveJBrinkman

[Finn235]

Tesorillo is IMO the superior website for attributing late bronzes (ca 317-476 AD):

https://www.tesorillo.com/aes/home.htm

Admittedly, it does fail to mention rarity and has no actual images, which can be difficult to assess especially for the very late AE4s where style and fabric is most important, e.g. Honorius AE4 versus Johannes or Valentinian III.

 

I also love the .xls spreadsheets at the bottom of this page - definitely more of a specialist tool, but I often use them when trying to nail down an esoteric variety of late 3rd century antoninianus or follis

https://www.romancoin.info/

[rhj959]

I use https://numismatics.org/ocre/ mostly and sixbid or coinarchives to find out prices.  Not in RIC, https://www.notinric.lechstepniewski.info/ is also very useful as a back up for coins not in the OCRE database.  My main interest is RIC VI bronzes and I have a pdf version of RIC Vol. VI.

[Severus Alexander]

Everyone loves acsearch, of course, including me (we all owe a big thanks to @SimonW, who runs it!)  Just a heads-up that they've recently implemented a feature I requested: restricting search by date.  It's great!  Often I want to see prices only within the last few years, for example, and it's a distraction to see stuff from 2004.  The new feature takes care of that problem perfectly.

Here's a list of reference-type links I keep handy, by category.  I've found them all to be very useful (though I can't promise there aren't any broken ones).

 

General

Links to all ANS resources: https://numismatics.org/resources/

ANS Museum Notes - http://babel.hathitrust.org

 

Fakes

http://www.forgerynetwork.com/Default.aspx?aspxerrorpath=%2fasset.aspx

 

Auctions

acsearch past auctions: https://www.acsearch.info/auctions.html

e.g. https://www.acsearch.info/auctions.html?company=47

Old auction catalogues: https://www.rnumis.com/auctions_top.php

https://nnp.wustl.edu

https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins/library/salescatalogue/

 

Sixbid archive: https://www.sixbid-coin-archive.com/#/en

 

CELTIC

van Arsdell online: https://vanarsdellcelticcoinageofbritain.com

 

GREEK

Ancient Greek for Everyone: https://www.publiconsulting.com/wordpress/ancientgreek/

BMC Greek: http://snible.org/coins/bmc/ (Thanks, @Ed Snible!)

Athens new style: http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan131509

Chersonesos hemidrachms: http://bpmurphy.ancients.info/chersonese/Cherronesos.htm

Cistophori: http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan30795

bactrian/indo-greek (ANS) https://numismatics.org/bigr/

Alexander’s mints (Chrome only): https://artemis-collection.com/coins-of-alexander/map/ (thanks, @Kaleun96!)

 

ITALY

Etruscan:

https://medagliere-firenze.lamoneta.it/cat/FI-ETR

 

Carthaginean

- good discussion, links to other references: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coinage-of-carthage.331967/

 

Lydia/Kroisos

- http://rg.ancients.info/lion/kroisos.html

 

Asia Minor Coins

- https://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/search.php

 

Macedonian

- http://coins.ekt.gr/Coins/coinsSearch.jsp?lang=en

- http://numismatics.org/pella/ (Alex, Philip, and more - including mints outside Macedon!)

 

Seleucid Coins Online:

http://numismatics.org/sco/

 

Ptolemaic:

http://numismatics.org/pco/

bronze: http://ptolemybronze.com/ptolemy_series.html

Svoronos online: https://www.coin.com/images/dr/svoronos_book3.html

 

Judaean:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=reading judean coins

 

Parthian

https://mrcollector.eu/parthia/index.php?language=en

 

Sasanian

General, incl. dates and mints: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Sasanian

Mints: https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/identification-of-sasanian-coins-186.html

 

 

ROMAN

 

Roman Republican

CRRO: http://numismatics.org/crro/

http://numismatica-classica.lamoneta.it/cat/R-RR

McCabe: http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info (thanks, @Andrew McCabe!)

Victoriati: http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html (thanks, @SteveJBrinkman!)

Anon. denarii: http://www.stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/ (ditto to Steve!)

Dies: https://livyarrow.org/2020/07/14/schaefers-binders-online-rrdp/

http://numismatics.org/rrdp/ - supersedes above?

 

Roman Imperial - general

OCRE: http://numismatics.org/ocre/search

Not in RIC: https://www.notinric.lechstepniewski.info/

ERIC: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins

 

Provincial: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk

(still missing June 2022: Pertinax to Macrinus (193-218); Valerian to Diocletian (253-297)

 

Virtual Cohen: https://www.virtualcohen.com/home

 

Flavians: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=11162 (thanks, @David Atherton!)

 

Antonines and a few others: http://romanpaulus.x10host.com/Main/Menu.html (Paul Dinsdale)

 

Decius through Gallus and Aemilian

http://www.sonic.net/~marius1/mysite/

 

Gallic Empire:

http://gallic-empire.com

Postumus mints: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/lateromancoinage/gallic/postumus.html

 

Valerian & Gallienus:

http://gallienus.net - replaced by https://bnumis.com/gallienus.net/index.html

With Göbl numbers: http://www258.pair.com/denarius/coinage.htm

Viminacium: http://www.muntenmuseum.nl

 

268-276 (Claudius II to Tacitus):

http://www.ric.mom.fr/en/home

 

Probus:

https://probvs.net/probvs/

https://www.probuscoins.fr/

 

Late Roman (313-476)

Constantine site: http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com (thanks, @Victor Clark!)

https://www.nummus-bible-database.com/

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/index.html (thanks, @Valentinian!)

https://www.tesorillo.com/aes/home.htm

 

Monograms:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=monogram

http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/monograms.htm

 

Byzantine:

DOC online: https://www.doaks.org/resources/coins

Labarum: http://labarum.info/lbr/index.php?

--- https://coins.labarum.info/en/catalog

“An English Collection” https://www.byzantine-ae.info

Anonymous folles: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ByzAnon/ (thanks again to Warren!)

Late trachea: http://glebecoins.net/paleos/home.html

Esty’s Byzantine site: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Byz/index.html (and yet again!)

 

Medieval

ANS: http://numismatics.org/search/department/Medieval

 

ENGLAND

Short cross pennies: https://hallshammeredcoins.com/?page=shortcross

Edwardian pennies: https://www.rodblunt.com/edwardian-pennies

 

ITALY

https://numismatica-italiana.lamoneta.it

    including Florence: https://numismatica-italiana.lamoneta.it/riepilogo/W-FIREP, https://numismatica-italiana.lamoneta.it/cat/W-FIREP

 

Spain

https://wearenumismatics.com/imperatrix/

 

Russian

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?e=russia&r=&ct=coin&tb=y&tc=y&tn=y&tp=y&tt=y&cat=y&ru=&ca=3&no=&v=&d=&i=&a=&dg=&m=1&f=45&t=&w=&u=&g=&se=&c=&wi=&sw=&p=1

http://silver-copeck.ru/8002/1.html

https://kyiv2014.com/wire.html

 

ISLAMIC

http://www.zeno.ru/

Al-Andalus: http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com

 

Central Asian:

https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=2126

http://www.sogdcoins.narod.ru/english/index1.html

http://www.grifterrec.rasmir.com/coins.html

 

India

http://coinindia.com/

https://www.zeno.ru

 

Far East

China:

https://www.zeno.ru

Robert Kokotailo's pages: https://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china.htm#index

[Kaleun96]

9 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

Alexander’s mints (Chrome only): https://artemis-collection.com/coins-of-alexander/map/ (thanks, @Kaleun96!)

Thanks for the shout out! Just want to mention that it should work in all modern browsers, I only tested it in Chrome, but theoretically Firefox, Safari, etc should be fine too. The main limitation for now is that it's not a good experience on mobile, though I'll hopefully fix this in the coming weeks/months.

[SimonW]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments on acsearch. I am happy it is helpful to some here. There have been a few minor updates lately. Besides the one @Severus Alexander already mentioned, the most important one is probably the revised bookmark list, where you can now choose between list and gallery view and change the order of the items via drag & drop.

[Coinmaster]

@Severus Alexander@SimonW and all others, many thanks for these great references!

I'm a big fan off acsearch myself and helped many detectorists with identifying their medieval and other coins. It's very useful when searching with only a few readable letters on a coin.

Three additions to the above links are: http://dirtyoldbooks.com/roman/id/ and https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/ancientcoins.html and

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=ERIC - How To Use This Book

Edited December 22, 2022 by Coinmaster