Abit of a noob when it comes to ancients (just getting started) and I've seen loads with references like RIC (some numbers here) and MPR(numbers here) just wondering what do they mean and what are they references from ?
This article is a starting point for explaining what RIC is. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=RIC
There are gobs of books which serve as catalogs or references for ancient coins and as you might expect given the millennial span of "ancient" coins and cultures, there isn't one book that covers everything. Some reference books are written by scholars who compile information from various public and private collections and some reference citations are to auction catalogs which feature some prominent collection. Some references are old enough to be in the public domain or have otherwise been made public in the form of .pdf documents or other internet-friendly format. Others are in books, some are in print, others out of print and available in numismatic libraries if you're lucky. I don't know how many reference books and catalogs exist for ancient coins. Many thousands, probably. To get an idea of ones which are more commonly used, browse CNG's bibliography. @medoraman... meat grinds
@Adam95 , welcome to the ancient forum. I think you will enjoy ancient coins. I have an educational site for beginners: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/ and its third page has a page on books I recommend: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/learnmore.html and the whole site has a Table of Contents of numerous other educational pages: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/
From Wiktionary: Etymology Abbreviation of Latin folio (“on the (next) page”), ablative of folium (“leaf, page”). Abbreviation ff. and the following (pages, paragraphs etc.) Usage notes The abbreviation ff. is used in citation to refer to a section for which no final page number can usefully be given. When used, ff. has no space between it and the preceding number and is followed by a full stop. If there is only a single section following, f. may be used instead. More properly, it is still used, as originally, to refer to the next page or pages in a citation. As such, Hornblower 258f. would refer to pages 258–259 while 258ff. would refer to an undetermined number of pages following page 258. When using a book reference to find a topic, one may encounter one or more ff. references, one or more f. references, and one or more normal references. Since an ff. reference means the topic is mentioned over several pages starting at the page number preceding the ff., it is normally useful to start with the ff. reference(s), followed by the f. reference(s), and then the normal references. ... I think in the context of a RIC number, it means there is an unspecified range of RIC numbers beginning with the stated number. Hopefully someone will correct me if I've misunderstood this abbreviation!
ff (usually lower case) means "and the following numbers" without being specific as to how many more. You may see a part of an academic article cited with "p. 47ff" meaning the relevant part begins on page 47 and continues from there.
Last question; after the RIC number it says (1ex) would this mean 1 example ? ive tried to find this coin on the sites that have been listed but non of them have the same mint mark
References frequently offer a guide to rarity based on how many examples they found when looking in a selected set of places. The theory is that a coin listed from one example in the collection of one museum will be more rare than one listed and seen just about every place that has a coin collection. While often true, such things are not without fault. This does not mean that only one example exists. It means that the study here was based on just one. I have posted several opinions on reference books but my style of collecting may not be exactly your style. Consider or ignore as you see fit: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html#ric http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/idric.html
