Recently purchased Caligula Dupondius & OCRE

BTW FF, I seldom do an OCRE search via their home page - takes too long. I just type a string of pertinent text in my browser launch widow to include OCRE - the search result page will include at least one link to the desired OCRE page. For instance, I entered something like “Caligula dupondius consensu senat OCRE” in my computer search launch window to obtain the OCRE page I feature in my post here.

 

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Thanks @Herodotus. I am on your side.

 

Thank you Donna - nice Vesta! Love the obverse inscriptional lettering!

 

Thanks for the input SA. I agree with your observation relating to RIC.

 

It seems to me a little bit of both. I will try to capture a close-up pic of that area in the next couple of days - when one of my grandsons sets up my photographic equipment for me.

 

Thanks for the info. I will try that the next time I try and look something up via OCRE.

 

Thank you for your usual scholarly and detailed reply and observations Curtis, which are very illuminating. I believe posting the following coin of mine is appropriate here and adds to the information you have posted.


RIC Vol. I, CAIUS (CALIGULA), SESTERTIUS, Rome, No. 51, 40-41AD,(35mm, 26.2gm)

Commemorating the dedication of the temple of Divus Augustus.

Obverse depiction: Personification of Pietas, seated left
Obverse Inscription: C CAESAR DIVI AVG PRON AVG PM TRP IIII PP In exergue: PIETAS
Reverse depiction: Caligula standing left holding patera over altar - attendants (victimarius) on either side holding bull for sacrifice - hexastyle temple of Divus Augustus festooned with garlands in background.
Reverse Horizontal Inscription: {small lettering} DIVO AVG and below: S C (left and right)

 

Very nice indeed, congrats.

 

Great looking coin jamesicus. A real beauty.

As for OCRE, I find it very, very helpful. It is also sometimes very frustrating - the more I use it, the more errors I find - basic stuff, because I am not an expert by any means, but I find myself getting confused.

Some of the search functions are great, but sometimes they don't work. For instance, if I don't know the denomination of, say, a Hadrian bronze, it will not always pull up what I need if I limit the search to "material" - I am not sure why this is, but it seems especially bad with Hadrian. RIC did a huge upgrade/revision for Hadrian and although it is overall a good thing, the search function is pretty spotty unless you know what you are looking for.

There are basic typo-type stuff as well. And some of the examples used from museums are just wrong - they don't match the description.

Here is a recent post I made where an OCRE error baffled me. In this instance the deity was incorrect in OCRE (and a big thank you to ambr0zie for helping me out)

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/co...tanding-attribution-help.370159/#post-5134698

But I don't want to complain too much - OCRE is very useful most of the time and it is free.

 

Thank you very much for that great post @Marsyas Mike - just what I was looking for! I meant to include lack of a good feedback procedure as a weakness of OCRE in my post. - Pause - Beverly has just told me that dinner is served so please excuse me, I will complete this reply shortly.

 

Continued …………… I hope all users report coin attribution errors, hard to understand information and navigation problems to the OCRE administrators because I think this is too good an attribution/research facility for collectors not to expend the time and energy to help make it as reliable and easy to use as possible. I intend to do my part.