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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 4113618, member: 85693&quot;]An interesting thread.&nbsp; As someone who has only been researching ancients online for about 3 years, this is kind of a newbie observation, but I thought I&#039;d put out an example.</p><p><br /></p><p>I recently got a low-grade sestertius of Hadrian showing the emperor raising up a personification of Africa - RESTITVTORI AFRICAE a travel series type on the cheap. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I first started a couple years ago, Wildwinds was my main source of information, and I still enjoy using the site, but there are gaps.&nbsp; This coin is a good example of this - it is listed as RIC 941, which is basically correct.&nbsp; But...</p><p><br /></p><p>An OCRE search shows five variations of this RESTITVTORI AFRICAE, RIC 940 (which is described wrong) and four variations of RIC 941.&nbsp; The differences have to do with bust types.&nbsp; Mine is laureate, facing right, which makes it RIC 941f (I think). </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=deity_facet%3A%22Africa%22+AND+denomination_facet%3A%22Sestertius%22+AND+portrait_facet%3A%22Hadrian%22+AND+fulltext%3ARESTITVTORI" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=deity_facet%3A%22Africa%22+AND+denomination_facet%3A%22Sestertius%22+AND+portrait_facet%3A%22Hadrian%22+AND+fulltext%3ARESTITVTORI" rel="nofollow">http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=deity_facet:&quot;Africa&quot;+AND+denomination_facet:&quot;Sestertius&quot;+AND+portrait_facet:&quot;Hadrian&quot;+AND+fulltext:RESTITVTORI</a></p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, I tried to find other attributions noting the &quot;f&quot; in RIC 941f.&nbsp; Interestingly, most sources - including the Big Auction Houses and Vcoins - don&#039;t bother with the full attributions, and just list RIC 941 for this laureate type.&nbsp; No big deal, but OCRE is the way to go for full attribution in this case. </p><p><br /></p><p>That being said, OCRE is not perfect.&nbsp; I find a lot of mistakes, usually in the examples used for a given type - wrong bust type, inscriptions, etc.&nbsp; In the link above, note RIC 940 is described as &quot;laureate bust right&quot; but shows a single example - with a bare-headed bust left!&nbsp; So is mine RIC 940?&nbsp; Also, I have to wonder if there are such things as 941b, d, g, h, i - none of which come up in the search. </p><p><br /></p><p>Identical descriptions for different types is also frustrating to me as well - although I find other sources can be confusing this way as well.&nbsp; In the example above, RIC 940 and RIC 941f have identical descriptions (but the photos are completely different).</p><p><br /></p><p>And as noted in the OP, LRB searches in OCRE I find very awkward - Wildwinds is usually easier, and faster. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s my (very) humble Hadrian:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1067476[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </p><p>As for RPC, I find it very difficult to use - but when I can get it to work, it is great.&nbsp; It is one of those databases that seems to work best when I already know what I am searching for - and if I already knew that, I wouldn&#039;t be searching a database!&nbsp; But my computer skills are very poor, so the fault is probably with me. </p><p><br /></p><p>I really like using acsearch - I get a lot of hits with a minimal of information.&nbsp; Like Wildwinds, it is only as good as its contributing auctions, but it is often my go-to source for non-Imperial Roman stuff.&nbsp; Coin Archives, FORVM, Vcoins are other places I go.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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