Roman Inscriptional Lettering Reference page

ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN INSCRIPTIONAL LETTERING

CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS LETTERING



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 V respectively. 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 letterforms 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. The quality of Roman Imperial coin lettering reached its zenith on late period Julio-Claudian coins.

Adaptation of Capitalis Monumentalis Letterforms by Coin Die Engravers



The coin die engravers used a selection of chisels (burins), stamps and punches -- the quality of the lettering may therefor have depended to some extent on the skill of the tool makers. The quality of the die metal would also be a determining factor. Certainly blundered letters did occur as evidenced by the S in CAES and COS on the following almost mint state Quadrans of Claudius. Rendering well proportioned and constructed Capital Roman lettering has always demanded considerable skill and it seems there has always existed a disparity of skills among the crafstsmen who executed them -- regardless of the tools and media employed.


CLAUDIUS, RIC Volume I, No. 88

Examples of early Roman Empire coin lettering






Examples of late Roman Empire coin lettering





References:

• EXPLICATIO FORMARUM LITTERARUM (The Unfolding of Letterforms), Rutherford Aris, The Calligraphy Connection, St. Paul (1990)
• ROMAN LETTER FORMS (How to Render), Tommy Thompson, Holme Press, (1946)
• WRITING & ILLUMINATING & LETTERING, Edward Johnston, Pitman Publishing (various Publishers), Bath, (1973-various dates)
• LETTERING, Graily Hewitt, Seely, Service & Co. Ltd. (various Publishers), London, (1930-various dates)

 

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It looks like they May have used the V and I to create the N in the CLAUDIUS, RIC Volume I, No. 88
are you aware if they had separate parts when creating the lettering? Interesting and grateful for this information.

 

Very cool @jamesicus

 

Thank you @kkathyl0 That is an interesting observation -- I take it you mean did the die engravers sometimes use burins/punches shaped like letterform parts? I think they may have -- the "blundered" S's I mention for the Claudius quadrans appear to be a result of careless matching of separate semi-circular burins when making the dies. When I was stone-cutting I always used regular stone-cutter's chisels. I have always used standard chisels for wood-block/linoleum letterform cutting -- still do. Similarly, I have always used ubiquitous square cut pen nibs for pen and ink Capitalis Monumentalis Lettering renditions such as those on this page.

 

Thank you ancient coin hunter!

 

Great stuff keep it going.

 

Very interesting, thanks @jamesicus!

 

Thank you TIF. I like that you used a CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS
(Times New Roman?) style font for your post. That shames me, because I should have changed the font style similarly for my post! (as on my actual web page). My excuse: I am getting too old and lazy! That is a weak rationalization I know -- I will go back and change it!

 

Thank you ancientcoinguru.

 

I didn't even look at the font options within the CoinTalk platform . I made a photoshop of my reply using TrajanPro.

 

Thank you -- will do!

 

I should mention that O Q P and S are the most difficult letterforms to render well for most practitioners. The letter O in particular is often badly out of round or miss-sized in the inscriptions on later Empire coinage as shown on this Constantius follis:

 

This was great, @jamesicus! It's handy to keep in my binder. Thanks!

 

You are most welcome, LaCointessa -- and thank you!

 

This write up is fantastic, very informative, and I enjoyed reading! Thank you @jamesicus

 

Great writeup. Very interesting!

 

Thank you for those very kind words Alegandron.

 

Thanks for posting this Jamescius- very helpful resource!

 

Thank you Orfew.