© 2004-2006 Andrew McCabe. If you've any questions or comments please contact me on the Yahoo Group RROME: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RROME

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Auction & Minor Museum Catalogues

Essential

Haeberlin collection: Gold-und Silbermunzen der Romischen Republik, Cahn-Hess 1933

Joseph Martini collection : Monnaies de la Republique Romaine, Ratto, New York 1930

Nicholas collection: Silbermunzen der Romischen Republik, Leu 17, May 1988

Leo Benz collection: Roman Republican Coins, Lanz 88, November 1998

These four catalogues are the best individual collections I am aware of, each with about 1000 illustrations on 30-40 plates. Between them you will find multiple copies of EID MAR, Cornufucius, Labienus, Caius Antony, Ventidius, Murcus, Erato and Numitoria denarii, 50 or so Social War coins and a similar number of late silver fractions, as well as rare bronzes and gold – oath scene, Mars/Eagle with symbols etc. The Martini and Benz collections each cover the entire corpus including silver, aes grave, a sampling of struck bronzes and gold, with notable rarities in all metals. Both have excellent plates, Martini’s loose-leaf on good quality paper, Benz on photographic paper. Martini has the best coverage of bronze. Leu 17 includes very high quality silver, and has comprehensive coverage with many rarities. Plates are good. Haeberlin covers gold and silver and is particularly comprehensive, with, for example, a complete run of sestertii and quinarii from the 50s and 40s BC, mostly missing from the other collections. The 1200 or so illustrations cover just a third of the Haeberlin collection, being the most important coins. Its pictures are rather dark but though visually less appealing its coverage is the best of the four. All these catalogues are difficult to find; the well known Haeberlin and Martini catalogues are expensive, the more recent ones less so. There is apparently a reprint of Haeberlin: if it is anything like the quality of the Sydenham collection reprint it is best avoided.

The Goodman Collection, CNG catalogues 43,44 (Triton I),45,46,47.

The best published struck-bronzes collection outside a museum. For those who cannot find the Kestner museum catalogue this is an excellent substitute although it is not easy to use as it is spread over a number of different catalogues. Goodman lists many types not elsewhere catalogued as well as commenting on previously misunderstood types (there is no commentary in Kestner). The commentary in Goodman is a useful addition to the Russo’s list of unpublished bronzes in Essays Hersh. CNG 46 has silver only; CNG43,45,47 and Triton 1 cover mostly bronze. Although not too difficult to find, CNG43-47 command a price premium over other catalogues because of Goodman. Essential for anyone interested in struck bronzes.

Vecchi Sale 3, September 1996

A specialised collection of struck bronzes, the best single volume auction catalogue for the series. Handy, easy to find and inexpensive. The coins are not of the same quality as the Goodman, Martini or Sydenham collections but it is a very useful quick-reference handbook. There are several attribution errors within to keep you on your toes.

CoinArchives website http://www.coinarchives.com/a/

Not an auction catalogue, but a web-site archiving auction catalogues. It covers the main international auctions since 2000, with over 125,000 coins and rising. Given the top-end nature of its coverage it is particularly good for rare and well-preserved coins usually missing from other databases. It has an efficient search function although since half the coins are described in German it is necessary to be inventive in search terms (for example search for the 3 digit Crawford number, or for Latin legends, rather than using English language type descriptions).

Warren Esty’s catalogue website http://esty.ancients.info/catalogs/

A website about auction catalogues, listing dozens of modern catalogues with a commentary on their contents. These include many other important groups of Republican coins not listed on my website. CNG, Vecchi and (some) NAC catalogues are consistently the most interesting.

Useful

G. G. Belloni, Le monete romane dell'età repubblicana (Milan, 1960).

A beautiful presentation of the Milan museum collection, stunning photography on 59 plates, the best of any book in my library. All metals. With the intent of being a comprehensive reference, the catalogue cites about 1200 coins not in the collection in addition to 2400 in the collection (about half photographed). No dating or numismatic discussion – it is just a corpus. Includes a useful list of moneyers, their magistracies and careers that substitutes for Brough. There is another publication from Milan, Sylloge Numorum Romanorum: Res Publica Milan 1994, which I have not reviewed.

Peter Kos & Andrej Semrov; Rimski Republikanski Novci – Zbirka Numizmaticnega Kabineta Narodnega Muzeja I (Ljubljana, 1990)

423 Republican coins from the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana. I’m advised that it is a nice little book, with pretty good coins well photographed and more attractively printed and bound than most such regional publications.

Numismatica Ars Classica Sales 5,7,8,9,10,E,F,H,K; 1995-2000

This sequence of NAC catalogues is particularly strong on Aes Grave (NAC 5,7,9,10,H,K) and struck bronzes (NAC 8,E,F). Each features around 100 bronzes or aes grave, the numbered catalogues having the higher quality pieces. Quite easy to find. More recent NAC catalogues, since 2001, are visually attractive but less interesting to me as the emphasis has shifted away from offering numismatically interesting collections in favour of individual high value coins (FDC examples, gold etc.).

La Republique Romaine, Sabine Bourgey, Paris 1991

Illustrates many of the best Roman Republican coins sold by Bourgey over the last century. The photo quality is not good, but it is important as it illustrates many coins from the November 1913 Bourgey auction of an “old collection”, believed to be Quadras y Ramon, with many important rarities. Inexpensive and in print.

Cataloghi dei Civici Musei di Pavia II : Monetazione repubblicana, Novelia Vismara, 1992

700 coins illustrated of above typical standard for an Italian local museum. As usual includes many more-or-less worn bronzes. High quality plates.

Coins of the Roman Republic in the National Museum in Warsaw, Janina Wiercinska, 1996

A well produced book, inexpensive, illustrating an interesting comprehensive collection despite not being top quality (it has an EID MAR, holed and worn)

Frederick S. Knobloch collection of ancient Roman coins, Stacks, 1978, 1980, 1984

High quality Republican coins in volume 1, however unfortunately only a small proportion are illustrated.

A Catalogue of the Roman Republican Coins in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum Edinburgh, Michael Crawford, 1984

Interesting not because of the coins, which are of low quality, but because it was written by Micheal Crawford and he took the opportunity to comment on updated typology research since the publication of RRC in 1974 (in most case, it should be noted, he rejects the new research!).

Fiorenzo Cavalli; La Monetazione Romana Repubblicana; Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato – Libreria Dello Stato; Rome 2001

Good text, maps, color photos (generally blown up) of some coins and aes signatum and a catalogue of about 900 coins with 70 pages of plates.

Less Useful

I list the following with no particular comment, except to say that they are in my library but I do not have any reason to refer to them. Either the coins are not of great interest or the production values are poor, and they do not contain any redeeming study material as in the Edinburgh example above. However many of these are inexpensive and a collector lacking photographs of the mainstream Republican series may find some of these interesting. The Wulfing and Ontario collections have quite good production values, some of the others are notably less professional.