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Message:: [QUOTE="Valentinian, post: 2604777, member: 44316"]49 BC is the beginning of the so-called "imperatorial" period (Caesar crossed the Rubicon) and the problem of identifying unknown moneyers and their dates largely disappears. The coins are mostly related to famous individuals and the history of the Republic is so much more thorough that the problem of dating coins after 49 is not so hard. Harlan says the block of 30 moneyers which he puts in 63-49 has more history attached to them than the ten moneyers just before them, who were unknown to history other than on coins. Also, the cursus honorum established by Sulla in 81 was mostly being followed, so that helped with dating. Also, the Mesagne hoard closed about 58 BC, which required many of Crawford's dates to be changed and allowed (required) reconsideration of the time period after the unknown moneyers and before the imperators. That was the first book. After further years of study, he attempted to date the difficult group of moneyers from the Sullan reform to 63. That is book 2. Book 2 has better photographs. Seaby made book 1 (63-49 BC) have life-sized photos, which are pretty small when you are really studying the details of a coin, and some show only the one side (I hate seeing only one side of a coin). Book 2, which I think he self-published, is very attractive with all photos enlarged and all two-sided.[/QUOTE]