RIC: A Publication History

The state of the RIC set as I understand it:

VOL 1
Originally Published: 1923
Reprinted: 1968, 1972
Revised: 1984

VOL 2
Originally Published: 1926
Reprinted: 1968, 1972
Revised: 2007 (as Vol. 2.1)
A reprint of 2.2 forthcoming

VOL 3
Originally Published: 1930
Reprinted: 1968, 1972, 1986, 1997

VOL 4.1
Originally Published: 1936
Reprinted: 1968, 1972

VOL 4.2
Originally Published: 1938
Reprinted: 1968, 1972

VOL 4.3
Originally Published: 1949
Reprinted: 1968, 1972
Vol 4 parts 1-3 reprinted in one volume 1986

VOL 5.1
Originally Published: 1927
Reprinted: 1968, 1972, 2001

VOL 5.2
Originally Published: 1933
Reprinted: 1968, 1972, 2001

VOL 6
Originally Published: 1967
Reprinted: 2003

VOL 7
Originally Published: 1966
Reprinted: 1972, 1984, 1997, 2003

VOL 8
Originally Published: 1981

VOL 9
Originally Published: 1933
Reprinted: 1968, 1972, 1988, 1997

VOL 10
Originally Published: 1994

 

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I am just getting into ancient coinage, and I want to build a respectable library of course. I've looked at RIC, but it is quite expensive. I am reading throuh Wayne Sales' series, Ancient Coin Collecting (I am in the middle of Vol III - Roman Imperial, right now), but that's all I've read.

What do y'all have in your library for Roman coinage? I've seen RIC, I've seen RSC, and I've seen ERIC. What do you recommend,and why?

 

I know you are referring to Roman coins, but I've enjoyed and learned a lot from John Anthony's Collecting Greek Coins.

 

There is an old saying about RIC that it takes 1000 dollars to get a set and 1000 hours to learn to use it. I do not agree on either count, it will take much less than 1000 hours but a bit more than 1000 if you want the complete 10 volume set. I think it is the ultimate online aim for is a reference on Romans, but not the first I would suggest you get.

Now that the complete 5 volume set of Roman Coins and their Values by David Sear has been published you can pick up the set for around 200 dollars. it will list most coins you will run into or a very close variety. It also contains a lot of good information for the starting collector.

If you are on more of a budget than that right now you can pick up a Spink reprint of the one volume Sear catalog from 1988 for about 25 dollars.

 

I too would recommend the Sear books. Since my collecting focus is covered by volume one, that is the only one I have. i have found it very useful. One of the first things I did after receiving the volume was to look up all of my coins and change the attributions I had recorded for each coin. However, the book does more than that, it contains a lot of valuable information.

 

RIC is a must have for hard core enthusiasts as far as the standard references are concerned. Expensive but worth it in my opinion. To get away cheaper and still have loads of information I would recommend David Van Meter's handbook of Roman imperial coins. I think you can ignore the pricing estimates, but many types are listed, and for around $30 you can't go wrong.

 

I have not seen the last couple Sear volumes but still recommend the set based mostly on the faults and costs of the others.

I have a book review page which includes some of the books mentioned. I keep saying I intend to add more reviews but type here on CT instead of there.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html

My extensive review of ERIC II is here:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=65466.0
Few believe or agree with it.

 

Well looks like im ordering some sear books. Thanks for the suggestions everyone

 

Does the Sear series cover Roman Republic coinage?

How/when do each of these "imperial" series begin coverage?

 

The main books I use for Roman coins are:

-RIC: I only have the first three volumes, but that covers from Augustus to Commodus, which is most of the Roman coins that I am interested in.
-RSC (Roman Silver Coins): I just have Volume 1, which covers Republican,. Imperatorial, and Augustus in great detail.
-Sear: RCV (Roman Coins and Their Values), the old 1-volume edition from 1988, largely for sentimental reasons as it was the first ancient coin book I bought, and GIC (Greek Imperial Coins and Their Values) which covers Roman Provincial. GIC is far from complete- if you specialize in provincials you'll need something more comprehensive- but it's useful for someone like me who just needs help with the occasional provincial coin.

Another Roman book I like, although it's not an attribution guide, is Clive Foss' "Roman Historical Coins". This book lists all Roman coin types, from the Republic to Romulus Augustulus, that reference a specific historical event, whether it's a military victory (e.g. Judaea Capta), travel to a province (Hadrian's travel series), public vows (the VOTA types), etc. I find it useful in planning my collection of Roman coins that reference Parthia.

 

The first volume of Sear is Republican and 12 Caesars. The second is Nerva through the Severans. The secret of books is convincing yourself you only want to collect coins in the books you have. The Provincial equivalent of RIC is RPC but few volumes have been released yet and no one now here is likely to see the last volume. Only the strongest people will be able to lift a set. By the time RIC X was released, several of the early volumes were seriously outdated. It is just the way these things work. No book is complete. For ID work, you might do better searching online resources which are far from complete but easier to update than ink on paper.

 

Without too much difficulty I found and downloaded PDFs of the original editions of RIC Volumes 1 thru 8 - I have not been able to find Vol. 9 or 10.

I also purchased ERIC II directly from the author off eBay for 79 bucks with free shipping. Supposedly there were 3,000 of the printing and mine is copy 883. Makes me wonder if the author still has more than 2,000 copies left.

In any case, for the few coins I have bought lacking attribution, it has been RIC that has been most useful to me.

 

I have RIC (older editions of all 10) and Sear. Cohen is available online at http://www.inumis.com/ressources/rome/books/cohen/. Sear is the one I turn to most frequently, with RIC to attribute coins not in Sear.

 

Sear has two books that cover the RR period, the one mentioned by Doug above and one on Roman Imperators from 49 - 27 BC. The go to book for RR is Roman Republican Coinage by Crawford, but it is a bit pricey when you can find it. The British Museum on line has a large collection of RR coins by Crawford numbers. My thoughts on RR books can be found here:
http://rrdenarius.blogspot.com/2015/06/references-for-roman-republican-coins.html

 

=> I bought a copy as well and I use it all the time (awesome colour book that I use to keep my Roman Rulers in order)

=> Oh, and I must have at least 10 books from David Sear (he's my coin-crush!!)

... I also have a bunch of other misc-books that were kinda refreshing (The 12 Caesars, John Anthony's Collecting Greek Coins, etc)

Bottom-line => books are super cool and I collect them more like coins than like reference guides (often the coin-books are almost as cool as the coins) ... but Doug is correct, nowadays it is far easier and far more efficient to hunt coins on-line

 

I'm a generalist collector so it's hard for me to shell out the money for a catalog that describes every variety of a particular type where I'm only going to buy one anyway. I realize that I'm missing out on important information. Books that give an overview of a culture's coinage or of the series are far more interesting to me.

 

I only have RIC I and must say I learnt a lot from it. It covers the primary period of roman coinage I am interested in so that reduces the need to get RIC II.

Another Catalogue I use which I find useful is 'Die Münzen der Römische Kaiserzeit'. Last reviewed in 2011. By U. Kampmann. It is of course much less all-encompassing than RIC, but has enough information nevertheless, including mostly up-to date pricing. It s available for less than 40 Euros, and you do not need to understand german to use it.

 

MY GO-TO's:
- Sear / Seaby - Roman Coins I & II - Especially book I for my Roman Republic focus

- Sear / Seaby - Greek Coins I & II - My Makedon, Diadochi, Carthage, and Sicily focus

- Thurlow & Vecchi - Italian Cast Coinage - My focus on Aes Grave

- SNG Copenhagen, the original "North Africa, Syrtica, and Mauretania"
(Warren Esty helped me get this!) - My focus on Carthage

- David Hartill - Cast Chinese Coinage

- Flinders Petrie - Historical Scarabs (with several other Egyptian / Scarab books) - opens a whole new world of Historical collecting beyond coinage.

- Coin-Talk friends and experts ... ideation, attributions, target coins, knowledge, fake identification, encouragement, friendship, coin contacts, acquisition sites...

- Around SEVERAL HUNDRED other saved reference sites, pamphlets, catalogs, books, etc...

- And, sometimes, a couple Beers for clarity. Some of my BEST focus.

 

The thing to remember about RIC is that you don't need to own the whole series if there is a particular emperor or time period that you are interested in.

I also second the suggestion of David van Meter's "Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins." A great place to start, it has a lot of useful information for a beginning collector and a very extensive list of coins, albeit without the fine detail of RIC.

Of course, both Sear's books and ERIC are also very useful. So a complete collection would probably include van Meter, ERIC, and whichever volumes of Sear and RIC correspond to your collecting interest.

 

I an probably going to be bit controvertial and ask what it is you want the books for and also if you know if there is a period you want to focus on?

If all you want is to attribute a coins to have a reference then you don't need the books because there are other ways to get that such as asking on boards like this or Helveticas RIC lists, Wildwinds and the like. If you collect silver then the RSC volumes will give you an RSC attribution, which in general maps to the Cohen number.

If you want to understand more about the mint, the history and perhaps the chronology of things then there are some volumes of RIC that could be for you but then there are others that will be of no use whatsoever e.g. RIC V.

For some periods it may be that the BMCRE volume that covers that period contains the more up to date thoughts over the equivalent RIC volumes(s).

ERIC and ERIC II provide an attribuiton and other references as part of this but avoid chronology within the issues of an Emperor.

If you want to specialise further on somemints then there are other, more specialised series you might want to consider e.g. Bastien for the issues of Lugdunum.

So given all of the above. What do I own / use?

I have a full set of RIC, RSC and BMCRE and I regularly use all three.

For Lugdunum coin I use my part set of Bastien of which I have 7 volumes.

For Alexandrian Tets. I use Milne, Dattari, Curtis, Emmet and others.

I own a full set of Sear but rarely open them.

I have VanMeter but have not opened it in many years.

I have ERIC and ERIC II (copy 82, signed by Ras) though I rarely use these either even though I contributed quite extensively to a few sections of ERIC II.

I have many many many other books e.g. SNG, Hunter, Coin Hoards etc. that I pick and choose from depending on the subject matter.

So the answer to the question is..... It depends....

Martin