Online Available Reference Works

[Coinmaster]

Hi all,

Maybe this is shared before on this forum and if so I'm sorry. I thought it would be helpful to share online available reference sites for identifying coins and/or for looking them up when a reference is mentioned in an auction, etc. Please add any other site or online publication/PDF that I missed, many thanks!

1. https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/ (COINAGE PAGES OF ROMAN EMPERORS AND THEIR FAMILIES)

2. https://numismatics.org/crro/?lang=en (Coinage of the Roman Republic Online)

3. https://numismatics.org/ocre/?lang=en (Online Coins of the Roman Empire)

4. https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/ (Roman Provincial Coinage online)

5. https://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/RRAuctions.html (Roman Republican Coins and Books by Andrew McCabe)

6. http://davy.potdevin.free.fr/Site/crawford1.html (Crafword online)

7. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ (Ancient Roman and Greek Coins: Educational pages)

8. http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm (HELVETICA'S IDENTIFICATION HELP PAGE)

PS: I'm looking myself for the PDFs of the three RBW auction catalogues. I found at least these:
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/36314514/the-rbw-collection-of-roman-republican-coins-numismatica-ars-
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/48252340/the-rbw-collection-of-roman-republican-coins-part-ii

[DonnaML]

For identifying Late Roman bronze coins:

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

I believe that Wildwinds can also be used for identifying Roman Republican coins (organized by gens, like RSC/Babelon) and ancient Greek coins, etc.

Edited May 21, 2023 by DonnaML

[Kamnaskires]

To identify Parthian drachms (by David Sellwood's attributions), this fun and easy tool never fails: https://mrcollector.eu/parthia/identifier.php

 

 

[CPK]

Thanks! 

Also, some of the major coin collections have at least portions displayed online:

Munich: Virtual Cabinet (staatliche-muenzsammlung.de)

Vienna: MK-ATW-KHM | Home (ikmk.at)

British Museum: Collection | British Museum

Bibliothèque nationale de France: BnF General catalogue

Berlin: MK-B | Home (smb.museum)

[DonnaML]

The Seleucid Coins Online database, under the auspices of the ANS:

http://numismatics.org/sco/

The Pella database for the coins of Philip II, Alexander the Great, etc., also under ANS auspices:

https://numismatics.org/pella/

A searchable database encompassing various published volumes of the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, particularly those for British collections:  http://www.sylloge-nummorum-graecorum.org/ . 

If you search Numiswiki (see https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp ) for any book or series of books on ancient coins that interests you, there will usually be an indication as to whether the book is available online, with a link if one exists.

For example, most of the BMC volumes covering Greek and Roman Provincial coins that were in the British Museum's collection when the books were published are available online; one can find the links by searching in the Numiswiki database for the relevant portion of the title you're seeking, e.g., "BMC Alexandria." The pdf to that volume can be found at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/BMC/BMC_Alexandria.pdf . Even though it was published back in 1892, it has most of the types one sees on the market today. The same is true of most of the other volumes.

Edited May 22, 2023 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

Among all the other pages at @Valentinian's website is one specifically listing online available reference works and databases like those you seek here, both relating to the coins of particular emperors and more generally: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/references.html . There was a thread here last November in which he solicited additional links for that page; see https://www.numisforums.com/topic/1643-links-to-sites-about-coins-of-roman-emperors/#comment-28307.

A couple of the ones I mentioned in that thread that I forgot to list above:

For Probus: https://probuscoins.fr/

For Postumus and the other monarchs of the Gallic Empire, all the volumes and parts (including plates) of the 2014 treatise by Jerome Mairat can be downloaded from Oxford's website, at https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:58eb4e43-a6d5-4e93-adeb-f374b9749a7f .

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by DonnaML

[Cordoba]

for bactrian coins:

https://numismatics.org/bigr/

[CPK]

Lorber's Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire:

Ptolemaic Coins Online (numismatics.org)

Edited May 22, 2023 by CPK
typo

[Molag Bal]

For Roman imperial from 268-276: https://ric.mom.fr/en/home

[Coinmaster]

Thank you all!
I have also one great addition for online publications: https://sites.google.com/site/digitallibrarynumis/. Enjoy!

[LONGINUS]

It’s always great to see a listing of reference resources, @Coinmaster. I use https://www.acsearch.info mostly.

[David Atherton]

One caveat I would like to bring up again ... OCRE is NOT an official RIC site. It uses the RIC numbering system to catalogue the entries but is riddled with mistakes. For example, OCRE was of little use tracking down specimens to help me figure out the rarity of a new acquisition. It showed three specimens of the coin in question, but erroneously linked a wrong variety to the RIC number.

https://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2_1(2).ves.1142  The second coin cited from Paris is actually RIC 1144. And this was just one random example!

If you want complete accuracy, get the book!

Edited May 24, 2023 by David Atherton

[Harry G]

There's GALLIENUS ANTONINIANII from the collection of Frank Reinhardt available here (probably one of the most comprehensive guides of Gallienus coins since MIR)

https://www.academia.edu/77282280/GALLIENUS_ANTONINIANII_English_version_PDF?email_work_card=title

I also have physical copies of RIC (Volumes 1 - 5) and MIR (although I regretfully sold my set of RPC books), and am happy to send pictures of pages if people are after a specific reference 😄

Edited May 24, 2023 by Harry G
Removed files so Spink doesn't sue

[akeady]

I don't believe RIC is public domain and Spink will try to take down any copies posted - which is likely why any websites with such PDF copies have disappeared.

I don't see any copyright information on your RIC VI but the other volumes you posted do have it, as does my paper copy of RIC VI:

Stick with the dead tree editions!

ATB,
Aidan.

[Harry G]

1 hour ago, akeady said:

I don't believe RIC is public domain and Spink will try to take down any copies posted - which is likely why any websites with such PDF copies have disappeared.

I don't see any copyright information on your RIC VI but the other volumes you posted do have it, as does my paper copy of RIC VI:

Stick with the dead tree editions!

ATB,
Aidan.

I've deleted the links (just in case!)

[CPK]

Is this thread worthy of being pinned? Wanted to look up some of these websites and had to track it down a couple pages back.

[Coinmaster]

Found another great online book!

http://www.dirtyoldbooks.com/CC/The-Complete-Coinage-of-Severus-Alexander.html

 

[red_spork]

On 5/21/2023 at 10:30 AM, Coinmaster said:

PS: I'm looking myself for the PDFs of the three RBW auction catalogues. I found at least these:

For what it's worth there were only 2 proper "RBW" catalogues: NAC 61 and 63. There was also a sort of mini RBW sale in CNG e-auction 364 which a small printed paper catalog was sent out to all buyers for after the auction, and some of RBW's gold coins were sold in Triton III as well but the rest of the collection was sold by several different dealers like Agora Auctions, Jencek, CNG, Amphora(David Hendin) via eBay and some private collector to collector sales for which there are no real catalogs for except what you can find on ACSearch and the auctioneers' websites. NAC did release a hardback book which contains the NAC 61 + 63 coins as well as RBW's gold coins from Triton III in a single volume and that's what you usually see cited as "RBW" in auction listings.

[Coinmaster]

16 minutes ago, red_spork said:

For what it's worth there were only 2 proper "RBW" catalogues: NAC 61 and 63. There was also a sort of mini RBW sale in CNG e-auction 364 which a small printed paper catalog was sent out to all buyers for after the auction, and some of RBW's gold coins were sold in Triton III as well but the rest of the collection was sold by several different dealers like Agora Auctions, Jencek, CNG, Amphora(David Hendin) via eBay and some private collector to collector sales for which there are no real catalogs for except what you can find on ACSearch and the auctioneers' websites. NAC did release a hardback book which contains the NAC 61 + 63 coins as well as RBW's gold coins from Triton III in a single volume and that's what you usually see cited as "RBW" in auction listings.

Many thanks, I didn't know that. Great!

[Broucheion]

Hi All,

@Coinmaster noted one of the four free books by Rasiel Suarez available at http://www.dirtyoldbooks.com/CC/ . They cover Florian, Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander, and Domitian.

- Broucheion 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Broucheion

[Harry G]

Oh, I nearly forgot about "The coinage of the Gallic Empire" by Mairat.

It's an analysis of coins of the Gallic empire, but includes lots of plates of coins too, and I find it useful when trying to get some more info on some scarcer types.

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:58eb4e43-a6d5-4e93-adeb-f374b9749a7f

(volume 2 PDFs are all plates)