Featured Roman Imperial coin lettering

Being a Calligrapher, I have always admired the letterforms employed by the artisan engravers of Imperial Rome on monuments, tombstones, edifices - and coins.



I particularly admire the Inscriptional lettering on the sestertii of the Julio-Claudian Emperors - especially those of Caius (Caligula), Claudius and Nero. The large flans permit elegant letter formation and, in my opinion, the die engravers of that period were especially skilled in rendering very elegant lettering. I eagerly seek out sestertii that have clear and complete inscriptions - the overall coin condition is of secondary importance for me. I have included photos of such coins in this post.





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 photographs of actual CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS lettering (including that on Trajan's column) at:


Bill Thayer's Latin Inscriptions section of his LacusCurtius web site

 

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The lettering on those sestertii is indeed beautiful, and your posts on this subject have really helped me appreciate this aspect of my coins. Here are a couple with, I think, standout lettering from this era (an Agrippa as issued by Caligula and a Claudius quadrans). Even the tiny quadrantes can sometimes have impressive lettering!

 

The letter that has attracted my attention is the T found on Tribute Pennies of Tiberius. The top of the T is two strokes not quite meeting in the middle.


I do not see this on AE coins of the period. Have you noted this use?

 

Thanks, Jamesicus. You gave me something to pursue.

I miss the Trajan font that used to come with Word. Herculanum is not as elegant. I recently came to appreciate Calibri despite a decade of resistance. I was working on a team of technical writers. The new version of Windows and Word had just come out and we sneered. "What the heck is Calibri? What is Cambria?" Well, Cambria never caught on, but I finally saw Calibri as the proper inheritor of Helvetica in a way that Arial never was. Now, I use Garamond by preference and Georgia by default for boards such as this and other media.

For Greek, there was Delphi. Symbol is fine for real Greek, but just does not cut it for English language headlines, etc.

 

Yes I have seen this on occasion. Despite their usually precise lettering (conforming to the established models) the coin engravers of this period seem to have had difficulty with “T” - maybe the “plain” horizontal bar surmounting the plain vertical bar offended their artistic sensibilities. In any event they occasionally seemed to “fiddle around” with the top bar by adding exaggerated serifs or rendering them as you depict. The attached example on a Claudius coin isn’t the best (the lead-off T) - I will try and dig up better ones.



Added: I do not own any Julio-Claudian denarii to post, sorry. I wish I did own some.

 

Thank you, Randy - some great lettering there!

 

Thank you @Severus Alexander - I certainly agree with everything you said.

 

Thank you @kaparthy - I enjoyed your observations relating to fonts.

 

It's very interesting to watch the lettering change over time. The highlight must be the first century A.D. The second century lettering is OK but degrades a bit by the time of Commodus. By the third century it is in full decline with often poorly lettered antoniniani of the emperors from mid-century onwards. Of course, there was less flan to work with, but one can imagine the mints cranking out so many poor coins that quality control went out the window.

 

I agree @ancient coin hunter. There were occasional coin issues produced during the third century that featured what I consider to be somewhat well formed lettering such as this London mint Carausius antoninianus (obverse):



By this time the basic lettering structures had changed - the letter forms are more “clubby” than first century Roman Imperial AE coins - note in particular that A now has a flattened apex and M has vertical uprights rather than splayed.

 

Here is a Caius (Caligula) As obverse. The flan, being smaller than those used for Sestertii, restricts the die engraver’s ability to produce letterforms that are as elegant as those on the larger coins.



Side note: the T of TRPOT (at the end of the legend) maybe something like the examples on the denarii referenced by @dougsmit in a previous post.

 

I've always admired calligraphy - I'd love to see some of your work if you have any examples!

 

It is gorgeous work. I have received a few letters / packages from him.

 

The following three exemplars are quotations, poetry extracts, etc. the like of which I often enclose with letters I send to family and friends. Nothing fancy, (no vinework or illumination) they are rendered in my favorite writing hand which I have modeled after the exquisite Chancery cursive (italic) hands of Italian Renaissance scribes Vicentino Arrighi and Bennardino Cataneo. I sometimes include Alphabet examples, just for fun. Some recipients report that they save and use some of these exemplars as bookmarks or for reference. It makes me feel good that they appreciate them. Feel free to copy any of these for your own use if you wish - that goes for all members of this Forum.








Added via Edit:

 

Wow!! That's incredible! What a phenomenal skill.

 

jamesicus, Your calligraphy is stunning ! You've got the hand of an artist . A friend of mine painted a shop poster for me 51 years ago when I was living in CA. He was a student at Rochester Institute of Technology at the time, & worked the rest of his life as a commercial artist. He did the calligraphy on this poster in Art Nouveau style which was very popular at that time .

 

Some very beautiful coins @jamesicus maybe one day I will be able to purchase a coin of such fine quality.
I have a few from the Julio-Claudian Emperors, but only one that has such nice lettering in my opinion.


Caligula Æ As. Rome,
AD 40-41.
Obv: C CAESAR DIVI AVG PRON
AVG P M TR P IIII P P, bare
head left
Rev: Vesta, veiled and draped,
seated left on ornamental
throne, holding patera and
sceptre; VESTA above, S-C
across fields. RIC 54; C. 29;
BMCRE 46. 12.24g, 30mm, 7h.
Very Fine. From a private
German collection. Roma
Numismatics E auction E-61
22/08/19


This one has some nice Inscriptional lettering also I guess.



Augustus Æ As.
Struck under Tiberius. Rome,
circa AD 22/3-30.
Obv: DIVI AVGVSTVS PATER,
radiate head left
Rev: Altar; S-C across fields
PROVIDENT below. RIC 81
(Tiberius). 10.81g, 28mm,
Ex L. Rose Collection.
Roma Numismatics E-Sale 60
Lot 720

 

I know this is not a coin but maybe since we are on the topic of the artisan engravers of Imperial Rome on monuments, tombstones, edifices - and coins.
I would like to add this in here, I found it when I was metal detecting a Roman villa site over 30 years ago. All I know is it is marble and is about 5 1/2 inches long 3inches wide and about 1 1/2 inch thick. I have no idea what the inscription might say. @jamesicus would you have any insight on this or any one else. I would love to be able to put this information with it.
It might be a good background for taking pics of my coins also.


bottom letters look to me to be OVIATOR or OVLATOR.
On second thought the first letter is way to different to be an O compared to the other letter that is for sure an O so I have no clue.

Found this that is sort of close but not:
Definition of siste viator


: stop, traveler —used on Roman roadside tombs

Also found this: Many occurrences of viātor are on epitaphs on Roman tombs from the “occupant,” asking travelers passing by not to deface the tomb with graffiti, or warning, “Look out! Your turn is coming!” Viātor was also a title of Mercury, the patron and protector of travelers and the escort of the dead to the underworld. A viātor was also an agent employed on official errands for magistrates, other public officers, and professional organizations

 

That is a wonderful artifact @bcuda - a real treasure - thank you for posting it. I cannot provide any insight relating to the lettering except that the letter forms are, to my mind, nicely formed and very pleasing. I am not knowledgeable enough to answer your questions @bcuda, sorry.