Crawford RRC 2019 Reprint (?)

Has there been a 2019 reprint in paperback (11 Apr 2019) of Michael Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage? ISBN 13: 9781108753500?
This book which has been very hard to find and when available commands a high price, now seems to be available in multiple places for ~$100 for the 2 vol set in paperback, and copies of the original are now showing up at reduced price. However - the place I would expect to find the reprint (Cambridge University Press) doesn't have it.

Interested to know if anyone has more information on this.

 

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Looks like it. This is great, I’m going to order a copy this week.

 

Less than $100 on Amazon US with free shipping....



As I am looking to eventually expand my Roman Republic collection, currently sitting at only 29 coins. It's always nice to have a physical catalog to compare your coins against to make sure the dating and the references the dealer gave you are correct. Yeah, there's stuff available online from 3rd parties, but nothing beats the original source for accuracy. Not to mention I can trust the book will still be around in 3 decades (I'm in my early 30's so I could possibly be around that long). Who knows how much longer wildwinds and other online sources like that might be around. The owner could pass away in a few years and there goes the website with all it's resources until someone else bothers to do the same again.

Now if only Roman Silver Coins would release an updated version...I would so buy all 7 volumes.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. I have an old ratty water damaged copy(that was thankfully cheap) I've been hoping to replace for quite some time. This will be an excellent replacement.

Note though that the plates will probably suck. They do in all reprints of this title as far as I know but most of the coins are from the BNF Paris or the British Museum and you can easily browse them by Crawford number at Coinage of the Roman Republic Online.

 

I can personally live with poor plates as I managed to obtain a Volume II of the origina edition (the plates....) a few years ago when a school broke up their library. Theye had long lost Volume I.

 

FYI, both volumes of Crawford have been digitized and are available through many university computer systems. Some may even be accessible to non-students through library computers, and it is possible to download sections of it as a PDF (such as the catalogue or plates). The plates are generally 'good enough.'

 

I have a digital copy of Crawford and can attest the plates are 'good enough'.

 

Just purchased as well.

 

I hope it is an authorized reprint. As others have noted, it has been digitized and it is possible to make unauthorized paper copies from that. The original was from Cambridge University Press. I could not find the paperback version on their site, so I wrote and asked them if it was authorized. It is Sunday, so I don't expect to hear back right away.

 

Good news: if you search with the ISBN Number it does show up for sale at Cambridge University Press.

 

Amazon also referenced Cambridge University Press as the source. So I'm guessing it's good.

 

Good. I'm glad it's legal. I have it in hardcover and recommend it to anyone interested in Roman Republican coins.

 

@Sulla80 they should pay you commission.

 

I really disapprove of those who buy or share or download bootleg PDF copies of currently sold books under copyright that provide nothing to the publishers (authors invariably get nothing anyway) and thus stifle future research that depends on sufficient quantities of properly paid for books to allow anything to be ever published in future. Use a library to borrow or research and augment with online resources. I am not aware of any legitimate PDFs of Crawford RRC. Perhaps such a thing exists but I doubt it.

So todays news must be a source of joy for all interested in Roman Republican coinage because it'll enable us all to hopefully be able to afford the real thing. Checking Amazon UK, one can buy a copy for £62.99 plus £2.80 postage. I have bought a copy. One can always find uses for additional Crawfords.

 

Agreed. Full discloser, I downloaded my digital copy from my University library many years ago when I was still a student. The copyright on it is 2001 Cambridge University Press.

 

While I fully agree with the fact that we should never steal books by downloading or photocopying, I do wish copyright laws would place some pressure of those under their protection to maintain some sort of legal access to such books. It is ridiculous for a book to rise to a point that used copies sell for 10+ times issue price and appear on the used market only on rare occasion. Modern printing technology allows print on demand in smaller quantities so it is less of a pressure to ask someone reprint officially or turn loose into Public Domain. It is also regretful that most of us associate 'reprint' with poor paper, weak binding and black spots called photos. I do not collect Republicans to the point I felt the need to buy an original Crawford and will wait to order this one to hear if this is the kind of effort that Michael Crawford will be proud to have his name on the cover. His book has been the Go-To work of choice on his subject for a long time. I know there have been a few controversies and discoveries along the way but I have not heard the book called a laughing stock like some other older books I might name (you know, the ones that do not sell used for high prices and are available in bulk at every book sale). Writing a book on 2000 year old coins that stands up for 20 years seems to be difficult. The fact that the book is being reprinted rather than replaced would seem quite a compliment.

I hope to see reviews here comparing the plate and paper quality when the first copies are in hand.

 

For the record @Andrew McCabe, I wasn’t suggesting anyone get an illegitimate copy. Cambridge has licensed a digital version to academic databases which are available though university libraries and which permit downloading sections as PDF copies for personal use. I do think that @dougsmit has a good point regarding copyright, however. If something is totally out of print but still under copyright, I think that’s a shame.

 

Product details

• Hardcover: 944 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Later Printing edition (March 28, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521074924
• ISBN-13: 978-0521074926
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 3.1 x 13.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

• Paperback: 1001 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Reprint edition (April 11, 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1108753507
• ISBN-13: 978-1108753500
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds

I can understand the thickness going down by use of thinner paper but does the smaller height/width mean the coins are reproduced in reduced size? Does the additional number of pages mean there is an addendum making the reprint more of an update than a photocopy?

 

Based on those dimensions, the pages are roughly the size of copier paper. I think that's probably still big enough to allow decent images, while making the reprint affordable to most collectors to consider buying a copy for themselves or others.

@dougsmit You nailed it, I bet you if Roman Silver Coins was updated and re-issued tomorrow using a micro-printer that allows for smaller batches, I could see it selling 8,000 to 10,000 copies of each of the 5 volumes in total. The demand is definitely there. You see people paying $35 or $45 per volume for the severely outdated 1950's or the 1960's books, and as much as $50 per book for the "newer" late 70's to early 80's edition all the time. And they sell well at those prices...proving a demand exists. Some of the volumes which can't be found regularly anymore, like Volume 5 for the 2nd edition, or volume 3 for the 3rd edition, can command crazy prices.

So imagine the updated RSC (all five volumes in paperback) selling at $40 per book....$200 for the set. Who here wouldn't bite on that for the chance of having more images of coins, newer research, and correction of the mistakes in the previous editions? All serious collectors of Roman coins would want it, plus experts, universities, dealers, etc. I think my estimate of a demand of 8000 copies of each of the volumes (40,000 books sold in total) is doable, and profitable for the publisher considering only a fraction of the stuff in the books will require update. The only major change will be adding additional images of coins.

 

My suggestion if you want high quality printed plates to go alongside Crawford is to buy copies of the RBW sales, Numismatica Ars Classica 61 & 63, or to buy a copy of the hardbound RBW catalog which is basically just a slightly more nicely arranged copy of everything from the two sale catalogs plus additional corrections and a few gold coins consigned by RBW in Triton III. Those catalogs will contain everything the average collector is likely to encounter. A specialist Roman Republic collector will want more sources and I recommend consulting Andrew McCabe's website for an idea of what else is worth tracking down.