Seldom are private numismatic collections of such historical and numismatic significance that they are analogous with the holdings of the great coin cabinets and museums of the world to such a degree that systematic cataloging and publication are warranted.[1] Rarer still are occasions when a private collection offers an unprecedented and unique opportunity for scholars to better understand a pivotal and transformative phase of numismatic development, typological innovation, and the interplay between distinct categories of ancient coinages. The Richard B. Witschonke collection, bequeathed to the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in 2015, is one such assemblage that fulfills such criteria.
Roman coins are generally assigned to the categories Republican, Imperial, or Provincial. While nuance exists and much has been said regarding demarcation of these categories, suffice it to say that Republican coins are those struck by Roman magistrates ranging from the advent of coinage[2] in the Roman world (326 BC being terminus post quem) down to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and are cataloged in Michael H. Crawford’s Roman Republican Coinage [RRC].[3] Imperial coins are those struck at some designated Imperial (or mobile) mint under the authority of an emperor and are cataloged in the Roman Imperial Coinage [RIC] series.[4] Provincial coins are those struck at civic or regional mints of the Greek East from the death of Caesar through the Imperial period (hence, their previous designation as Greek Imperials) until the last civic mint was shut down in AD 297 during the reign of Diocletian. Provincial coins most often portray an Imperial bust on the obverse coupled with iconography of local or regional significance on the reverse, employ Greek rather than Latin text, are most commonly bronze,[5] were (presumably) intended only for local circulation, and are catalogued in the Roman Provincial Coinage [RPC] series.[6]
Coins were produced in the Roman world, however, for which these three classifications are inadequate, as RRC catalogs what one can shorthand as Rome’s quasi-official state coinages of the Republic, while RIC and RPC catalog official and civic coins of the Imperial period. Consequently, such coins remain infrequently studied and poorly understood. Thus, a reference work for them not only is an overdue and most welcome resource for numismatists, historians, art historians, and economic historians but also is a significant step towards filling one of the few remaining lacunae in Roman numismatic catalogs.
To be clear, it is not the aim of Local Coinages in a Roman World [LCRW] to be an exhaustive catalog of all coins produced in the early Roman provinces during the later Republic before the Imperial and Provincial coinage systems emerged. Notwithstanding, because the Witschonke collection consists of a geographic panorama of coinages struck in the early Roman provinces[7] as well as regions of Italy and Sicily in the later Republic without significant chronological gaps and does so in superabundance,[8] LCRW can bridge RRC and RIC to some extent, but can more significantly be an invaluable antecedent to RPC. In fact, LCRW was often unofficially referred to as “RPC Zero” during the book project’s composition (p. ix; 3). It is of little surprise, then, that the editors do not adopt the format of RRC or RIC for the cataloging of the 3,726 coins, but instead closely follow that of RPC.
Accordingly, the organizational layout of LCRW mirrors the west-to-east presentation of regional and local coinages of RPC, comprising 36 distinct sections each supplied with a brief introduction of the respective coinages and regions. The introductions are superb, offer a treasure trove of bibliographical data, and present a rich and detailed outline of not only the respective local and regional monetary history but also describe how the increase of Roman hegemony (re)directed the trajectory of coinage practices, through direct and indirect means. Thus, the theme of Rome’s influence and variegated absorption into local civic affairs during the period of Republican expansion is a common thread throughout LCRW. As Carbone aptly puts it, LCRW documents the “transition from an initial integration between the complex and manifold local monetary systems and the Roman system” (p. 20). Accordingly, LCRW, unlike other numismatic catalogs, should be of much interest to the non-specialist, as it is far more than a banal tessellation of coin legends, diameters, and weights, that which many readers of BMCR might presume it to be.
While space does not permit for comment on each section of this large work, I will highlight those chapters which I consider to be especially important. Clive Stannard’s contribution on the non-state coinages of central Italy during the second and first centuries BC (pp. 75-79) is of particular significance. Stannard pushes back against long-established understandings of bronze small-change issues being a means for Rome to exert tight control over local Italic communities by either granting them permission to strike bronze or by prohibiting it. From this interpretation, local communities that were not allowed to strike bronze (a wide net, since aside from Rome, only Velia and Paestum were granted this right) then produced lower quality production bronzes that often are considered as unofficial coinages teetering on the edge of valid and counterfeit. Rather, what is argued here is that Rome was aware that scarcity of small-change bronze was a problem for central Italy and aware that local communities were making their own bronze imitations of official Roman bronze to meet market demands. Yet rather than such being evidence of overly restrictive Roman monetary policy and a tightly regulated system of allocating permissions to only a very few privileged communities to strike small-change bronze that then forced many other communities to do so illegally, it is seen as evidence of a laissez-faire attitude regarding Italian communities locally producing imitative coinage to meet local need of small change and was even encouraged. Stannard’s arrangement of proposed non-state coinages (p. 77, tab. 1) will certainly be an oft cited and referenced element of LCRW. It is worth note, however, that Rome’s approach was not uniform, as stressed by Suzanne Frey-Kupper, who reminds us that for Sicily and the adjacent islands Rome utilized a system best described as “a hybrid between a central organization and dies or engravers moving between mints” (p. 107).
As stressed by Liv Yarrow, the Witschonke collection not only is especially significant for practical reasons, in that it presents types either not listed in RRC or those that were miscategorized (LCRW nos. 587-588; 591; 625), but also because it contains a great number of retariffed overstrikes (LCRW nos. 558-559; 571; 560-566; 572-574; 577-579; 595), many of which are variants otherwise seldom attested, that provide much insight into the “reuse of the coinage of both allies and enemies in the Second Punic War” (p. 54).
The variegated manner by which Rome addressed the monetary concerns of newly acquired territories of the East and how integration with existing regional power structures operated is juxtaposed by analysis of bronze coinages in the province of Macedon of the Roman quaestores by Sophia Kremydi (pp. 184-185) with that of the bronze coinage of Roman Syria, with particular attention to that of Laodicea, by Oliver Hoover (pp. 304-305). Furthermore, the spread of Roman citizenship in the provinces is also revealed by an increasing use of the names of local elite in their entirety along with official Roman titles, such as occurred in Spain (LCRW nos. 111-130; 185-189), Gaul (LCRW nos. 440-442; 469-470), Sicily and adjacent islands (LCRW nos. 1210-1225; 1329) as well as Macedonia (LCRW nos. 2185-2331; 2371-2375; 2379-2385; 2488-2495).
While praise is due to Carbone for ensuring much continuity between the sections by a range of contributors, some small issues exist. First, LCRW contains three tables accompanying three different introductory assessments by three different contributors (p. 54; 77; 106), and each utilizes a very different style and manner of arrangement. Second, some contributors provide monograms as they appear on coins while others only present them in deconstructed form and underlined them to thus indicate their status as a monogram on the specimens. While this is an arduous problem to address, no doubt, given the high retail cost of LCRW, it is not unreasonable to expect that a uniform practice of cataloging the 3,726 coins is adopted. Lastly, as regards the plates in volume II, the vast majority of the images across the 176 plates are very well done and all were photographed at ANS. However, it is difficult to imagine how some of the images were approved for publication, as they are horribly washed out, presumably due to a poorly calibrated flashbulb or the contrast set far too high in whichever photo editing software was utilized, to the point of being of no value (e.g., LCRW nos. 177; 696; 748; 2078; 2087).
In terms of production quality, I am delighted to say that aside from the few instances of quality control noted above for some coin images, LCRW is of very high quality, which has (sadly) become rare among academic presses in recent years yet remains standard for all publications of ANS. Altogether LCRW is an outstanding example of numismatic collaborative scholarship and deserves its placement on one’s shelves between RRC and RPC.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Gilles Bransbourg
Preface
Introduction
Introduction
Catalogue
2. Spanish Imitations of Roman Republican Coinage
Introduction
Catalogue
3. Gaul
Introduction
Catalogue
4. Roman Republican Coinage
Introduction (Liv M. Yarrow)
Catalogue
5. Italian Imitations of Roman Republican Coinage
Introduction
Catalogue
6. Non-State Coinages of Central Italy
Introduction (Clive Stannard)
Catalogue (Clive Stannard and Lucia F. Carbone)
7. Italy
Introduction (Federico Carbone)
Catalogue
8. Sardinia
Introduction
Catalogue
9. Sicily and Adjacent Islands
Introduction (Suzanne Frey-Kupper)
Catalogue (Suzanne Frey-Kupper and Lucia F. Carbone)
10. Geto-Dacian Imitations of Roman Republican Coinage
Introduction
Catalogue
11. Eraviscan Imitations of Roman Republican Coinage
Introduction
Catalogue
12. Africa
Introduction
Catalogue
13. Crete and Cyrenaica
Introduction (Federico Carbone)
Catalogue
14. Achaea
Introduction
Catalogue
15. “Fleet Coinage”
Introduction
Catalogue
16. Macedonia
Introduction (Sophia Kremydi)
Catalogue (Sophia Kremydi and Lucia F. Carbone)
17. Thrace and Moesia
Introduction
Catalogue
18. Bosporus
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue
19. Paphlagonia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue
20. Bithynia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
21. Pontus
Introduction
Catalogue
22. Asia
Introduction
Catalogue
23. “Cistophoric” Countermarks
Introduction
Catalogue
24. Early Cistophori
Introduction
Catalogue
25. Aristonicus’ Cistophori
Introduction
Catalogue
26. Late Cistophori
Introduction
Catalogue
27. Later Republican and Pre-Imperial Cistophori
Introduction
Catalogue
28. Lycia-Pamphylia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue
29. Galatia and Pisidia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue
30. Cappadocia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
31. Cyprus
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
32. Cilicia
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
33. Syria
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
34. Coele Syria
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
35. The Decapolis, Idumaea, and Judaea
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (David Hendin, Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
36. Egypt
Introduction (Oliver D. Hoover)
Catalogue (Oliver D. Hoover and Lucia F. Carbone)
Notes
[1] So far as Roman coinage is concerned, the publications of the private collections of Gustave de Ponton d’Amécourt, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Victor A. Adda are among the most noteworthy. For d’Amécourt, see Rollin, H. and Feuardent, F. 1887. Collection de M. le Vicomte de Ponton d’Amécourt. Monnaies d’or romaines et byzantines. Paris: Rollin and Feuardent; for Mazzini, see Mazzini, G. 1957. Monete Imperiali Romane [5 vols.]. Milan: Mario Ratto; for Adda, see Haim, G. and Gambash, G. (edd.). 2017. Faces of Power: Roman Gold Coins from the Victor A. Adda Collection. Zurich: Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG.
[2] It is generally accepted that small nuggets of bronze as well as the stamped cast bronze bars of early Rome, the so-called aes rude and aes signatum respectively, were at most proto-currencies and are not representative of true coinage.
[3] Crawford, M.H. 1974. Roman Republican Coinage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted in 1983 and 1987 with corrections.
[4] Mattingly, H. et al. (edd.). 1923-. Roman Imperial Coinage. London: Spink. The series encompasses 10 volumes with a range of sub-volumes and has been undergoing continuing revision since 1983.
[5] Silver was uncommon while gold was exceptionally rare. According to RPC-Online (https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/), whose database at the time of this review contains 58,095 Roman Provincial coins, the metallic breakdown of Roman Provincial coinages is 87.2% (50,672) bronze, 12.1% (7,053) silver, and 0.7% (370) gold.
[6] Burnett, A. et al. (edd.). 1992-. Roman Provincial Coinage. London: British Museum Press. The series will encompass 10 volumes with a range of sub-volumes. At present, nearly all the catalog is accessible online while roughly half of all envisaged printed volumes have been released.
[7] This is not to claim that all regions are evenly represented. For instance, Celtic and Greek inscribed coins of southern Gaul as well as issues from Sardinia, Africa, Cyrenaica, and Crete were not, as noted by the editors (p. 3), of much interest to Witschonke and are disproportionately sparse in coverage here.
[8] This is not to mention, as well, that the Witschonke collection also contains some of the largest concentrations of certain coinages in the world (e.g., this private collection alone holds 17 of the 42 known specimens of Spanish imitations of Roman Republican coinages, p. 35).