A "Jamesicus" Tiberius Purchase

So I saw this coin in an unsold lot from an Italian auction. The first thing I noticed was the inscriptional letters. Now, what I know about inscriptional lettering you could put in a thimble and shake, but for some reason, I thought the inscription was attractive.

I can say with some degree of confidence that had I not seen @jamesicus post pretty regularly on Roman inscriptional lettering, I probably would not have been drawn to this coin. But I was, and it came this week.

I guess this goes to show how persons on this board can influence / expand one's aesthetics and taste.

So show your coins with attractive inscriptions, or maybe a coin you purchased because of another collector's educative interests and influence.

 

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Also got a decent portrait, nice pick up.

 

Yes. Only my second coin of Tiberius. I have a Tribute Penny, but I am trying to complete a 12 Caesars set in Imperial bronze. Generally possible with the exception of Julius Caesar and Otho.

 

Well thank you for that gracious lead in to one of my favorite subjects Gavin! Yes, I am somewhat obsessed (!) with the inscriptional lettering on Roman Imperial coins. That is mostly a result of my life-long pursuit as a teacher and practioner of formal Calligraphy. Roman CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS lettering (the style employed by Roman Imperial stone cutters and coin die engravers) became the model for capital lettering adopted by medieval scribes. That model was actually based on the lettering preserved on the base of Trajan’s column and is at the apex of the pyramid of scripts of the western world - all other writing hands are derived from it. My first (and dearly loved and respected) Calligraphy teacher, Mr. Wilfred Barton, was a taskmaster/perfectionist when it came to rendering Roman Capital lettering and as a young fledgling calligrapher I spent many hours submitting exemplars to him that underwent excruciating (for me) critiques and rejections. I have spent a goodly portion of my life since rendering Roman CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS lettering, sometimes in producing commissioned exemplars, but mostly because I love it so much! To me, it’s inherent elegance and beauty is reminiscent of the music of Mozart - so simple when you look at it as written, but so incredibly difficult to render well. Well, enough of that - I just get carried away - sorry.

To my mind high quality inscriptional lettering on Roman Imperial coins emerged during the reign of Tiberius and reached its zenith during the reigns of the Julio-Claudian, Flavian and Adoptive Emperors - it was mostly down hill after that!

The Tiberius coin you posted has some very nice lettering, Gavin, as does most Tiberian Aes coinage. Following is my favorite example of great lettering on a Tiberius As. The Obverse is fuzzy due to my poor photography skills. but the exquisite lettering on the reverse shows up pretty well:

(The titular inscriptions were sometimes carried over on to the coin reverse)


RIC Vol. I, TIBERIUS, As, Rome, No. 44 (AD 21-22)
Obverse: Tiberius, bare headed, facing left
Inscription clockwise from bottom: TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST IMP VIII
Reverse: centered S C
Inscription clockwise from top: PONTIF MAXIM TRIBVN POTEST XXIIII

And here are two abbreviated examples of my own Capitalis Monumentalis lettering (with notes):



Roman Imperial coin inscriptional letterforms are based on those of CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS employed by stone cutters for edifices, monuments, tombstones, etc. A fine extant example is found on Trajan's column in Rome and the essential constructs of these letterforms are the models for all Majuscule (Capital) alphabets used in the western world. Stone cutters in particular still employ their distinctive proportions and terminating serifs. It should be noted that only twenty letters were normally used in the ancient Roman alphabet: A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V X. Our modern J and U were not used, their equivalents being I and Vrespectively. Thus, our modern JULIUS was written IVLIVS. The letter K was seldom used and then only before A. The letters Y and Z were only used when reproducing Greek words. W was not part of the ancient Roman alphabet at all. It was Medieval scribes who formalized the construction models for the letters J K U W Y Z.

There are numerous excellent photographs of actual CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS lettering (including that on Trajan's column) mostly accompanied by location information, translations and analyses, at Bill Thayer's Latin Inscriptions section of his LacusCurtius web site

Although in general the inscriptional letterforms employed by Roman Imperial coin die engravers, particularly those of the early Empire, closely follow CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS there are some subtle differences, mostly resulting from the limited space available on coins for inscriptional lettering. Most notably, they were modified to produce closer spacing and a compaction of the wide letters C O Q and M resulting in more uniform and "square" lettering. The essential letterform constructs were closely followed for coins of the early to mid Empire who's inscriptions are generally stately and elegant: E and F have equal length horizontal bars; A has a sharp apex; V has a sharp junction; the bowls of B P R S are always nicely formed. P is frequently rendered on Imperial coins with an open bowl, i.e. not touching the vertical stem at the bottom - especially on coins of the early Empire.



Please try your hand at rendering your own version of Capitalis Monumentalis lettering using a pen or pencil on paper. If you wish, post your example here and I will critique it (and offer suggestions if you request).

 

I have shown my better Tiberius as too often but below was my first ex. Grant Edwards about 30 years ago. While far from beautiful or high grade (fine?) it is hard to beat for legends, strike and centering. Grant passed away shortly after I met him in the Washington DC club and his widow asked that members of the club get first crack at his coins. I bought over thirty and wish I had bought many more. Grant taught me to appreciate the good and interesting things a coin had to offer rather than moaning over its faults. I still select coins to buy for the good points and decide how much to pay according to the faults. This coin, in addition to the legends, demonstrates red copper under green patina. It was $28 I do not regret spending. I lived in the Washington DC area for nearly 20 years before I discovered there was an ancient coin club that specialized in ancients. That is a delay I deeply regret. I learned as much or more from the people I met there as I did from books back in those pre-internet days. By the time I left the DC area, I truly hated that town but a really miss those meetings of the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington. Their website was last updated in 2006 and the last evidence of existence I found online dates to 2016.


While I was typing this, jamesicus posted a nicer one. The mint of that period seems to have cared about centering!

 

Well, I'm glad I got the @jamesicus seal of approval on my Tiberius coin. Indeed, sometimes it takes some education in order to start "seeing" all the things one can see on a coin, or at least caring about them. The above two posts demonstrate how generous contributions can enrich the hobby for those who stop to pay attention. I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I picked up this Tiberius.

 

Very nice example Doug - thank you for posting it (along with you usual illuminating text). I particularly admire the patina on your coin.

 

Yes, it was indeed a great acquisition, Gavin.

 

Here is another As that features what I consider to be excellent lettering:

 

Early Empire Sestertii freqently featured particularly elegant inscriptional lettering - and often lots of it owing to the large flan sizes:


RIC Vol. I, CLAUDIUS, SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 109, 42-43AD (38mm, 28.0gm)
Obverse depiction: Nero Claudius Drusus (father of Claudius), bare head facing left
Inscription: NERO CLAVDIVS DRVSVS GERMANICVS IMP
Reverse depiction: Claudius seated left on curule chair holding olive branch,
panoply of weapons and armor beneath
Inscription: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP PP - S C -

 

Of course if you REALLY like a great amount of lettering, Trajan Sestertii are the way to go:


RIC Vol. II, TRAJAN, SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 534, 98-117AD, (35mm, 22.6gm)
Obverse depiction: Trajan, head facing right, wearing aegis
Inscription: IMP CAES NERVAE TRIANO AVG GER DAC PM TRP COS V PP
Reverse depiction: Trajan galloping on horseback spearing a fallen Dacian soldier
Inscription: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI - in exergue S C

 

Trajan is almost too much for me. I like the more generous space for the letter forms.

 

Yes! I agree.

 

I wonder what happened between the time of what I would call reasonable Trajan legends and the 'lets see how many letters we can cram in period'.

 

The quality of inscriptional lettering on Roman Imperial coins had declined significantly by the time of the Tetrarchy - the round forms in particular (O, S, P, B, C) were often poorly formed:

Example:

 

I don’t know the answer, but I much prefer the generously spaced lettering and nicely laid out legends on the coin you posted.

 

I believe Sutherland, in his “Roman Coins” book, pegs the beginning of decline in the quality of inscriptional lettering to the reign of Severus Alexander - but I am not sure of that because I no longer own that book.

 

Some well formed and stately inscriptional lettering - particularly on the obverse - on this Caius (Caligula) dupondius:


Caius (Caligula) - RIC I, No.56 (AD 40-41) - Rome

 

Excellent. I think my Claudius is probably my best example.

 

Yes I agree, Randy. But I also like the lettering on the DIVVS AVGVSTVS Coin. Thank you for your post.