In 2018, Spink released a budget-friendly, combined reprint of the Cunetio and Normanby Hoard catalogues in a single volume. Price is about $100. Those of you who specialize in 3rd century Roman coins will know that the Cunetio Treasure book, originally released in 1983, had reached astronomical price levels on the secondary book market. I learned about 10 years ago that a reprint was in the works, so I stopped bidding (and losing) $500+ for original copies at auction. The new, combined volume details the type census of these two important (and huge) hoards, making it a useful indicator for relative rarity of the coins. Cunetio hoard ends with the Tetrici. Normanby hoard ends with Allectus. I highly recommend this book. At $100, it's a great value. When I found this at NYINC, I couldn't resist.
We will expect an illustrated review when you can including but not limited to things like photo reproduction quality. Please.
Nice purchase @Carausius I also look forward to a review. I have never regretted any of the coin related books I have bought.
My copy has arrived today and I thought that I would share my initial thoughts. Please bear with me as I am no Doug Smith. I have not had a detailed read but have flicked through it. The Cunetio Horard was found in 1978 and was originally published in "The Cunetio Treasure - Roman Coinage of the Third Century AD" by E. Besly and R. Bland in 1983. The original was published by British Museum Publications in Hardcover with 199 pages and 40 plates. Second hand copies come up occasionally but regularly demand $500+. One was listed on VCoins and sold for $700. The Normanby Hoard was found in 1985 and was originally published in "The Normanby Hoard and Other Roman Coin Hoards" (aka Coin Hoards from Roman Britain; 8) by R. Bland and A. Burnett in 1988. The original was published by British Museum Publications in Hardcover with 238 pages and 40 plates. Second hand copies are available through a variety of sources but demand $150+. Both books have now been republished and combined into a single hardback, un-jacketed volume. "The Cunetio and Normanby Hoards" and published by Spink, 2018 (ISBN: 9781907427954). Copies in North America seem to retail between $95 and $100. In the UK the retail price is £60 but a little shoping around can find a new copy for £46 including shipping. First impressions are good. It is a well presented hardcover. Paper quality is good. The whole feel is of a quality book. A short introduction has been added, covering how to use the two sub-volumes, some information on recent work on the radiate coinage covered by the book and some notes to aid identification of coins of this period. The book is then split into two sub-volumes starting with the Cunetio Treasure, which would appear to be a direct reproduction of the original. It looks quite dated in appearance as it was written using a monospaced font and the text is fully justified with a single column of text per page. It reminds me of old computer printouts. This does not detract from the content it just takes a little time to adjust to reading the text. The content of this volumes seems exactly what you would expect from a hoard analysis with lots of details analysis as well as details of the cointent of the coin broken down on an emperor by emperor, mint by mint basis. Each line is used to identify a number of coins that are of a particular type, identified by Obverse legend, reverse legend, reverse type, mintmark and bust type. A correlation is given to RIC combined with other references as applicable e.g. BMC (for early silver), Alfoldi (where applicable) or Elmer (where applicable), the quantity of the type and an average weight. There are even a few surprises in there for me with three COS II mint coins of Septimius Severus, one of them, a basket of fruit type, illustrated in the plates. The plates are good enough. I suspect that they are equal to the orginals. I base this on a comparison of the plate quality with the plates from the Chalfont Hoard (Coin hoards IX) which seems to be of equal quality. The plates are probably limited by the quality of the original photography with the coins being reproduced 1:1. The second half of the book moves on to the Normanby Hoard. The style of the presentation seems slightly more modern. The text is now slightly more dense and is presented in two columns per page, with each coumn being left justified. The content is what you would expect and want to see from a coin hoard analysis with lots of background, history etc.. Again there is a detailed breakdown of the content of the mint. An acknowledgement is made within the tables that some of the coins were of poor condition and as such the columns have a breakdown of the numbers of poor and normal examples contained along with different average weights for each. The plates are of equal quality to those in the other volume. My summary. Is this a book I will use on a day to day basis? No. It doesn't match my focus areas even though I do drift into this this period with annoting regularity. Is it something that I will use? Yes, but I suspect that it will only be a few times a year. Is is good value for money? Even for me, someone who doesn't have a focus on this period I think this is great value for money and I recommend it. I will have to spend some time reading it further to give a more detailed summary. This will not be something I will be doing soon. Martin
Hallo Martin! Thanks a lot for the extensive information. I just ordered the book from a local bookstore. However, there seems to be some problems with deliveries from GB at the moment. I hope to have it nevertheless in my hands in a few weeks anyway! My reason: Mairat also mentions the Cunetio numbers as references in his work "The Coinage of the Roman Empire".
