Anonymous Struck Bronzes of the Roman Republic

26 Marzo, 2014

Essays Russo, which I announced earlier today, contains a substantial article by me, 175 pages, on the Anonymous Struck Bronzes of the Roman Republic. In this and the next note I will illustrate 10 pages of the article (that's just 5%!) to give a flavour of the subject matter and my treatment of it. I include here the abstract and preface:

Abstract

This paper investigates the various issues of Roman Republican anonymous struck bronzes, with prow designs, dating from 215 BC onwards. I suggest a provisional arrangement of the anonymous coinage into fifteen main groups and many sub-groups, considering design, style, manufacture and find information, but not considering weight as a primary sorting tool. In the conclusions I discuss weight behaviour, standards and relative issue size for the different groups of anonymous bronzes. The coin evidence leads me to question whether a sextantal standard for Roman struck bronzes ever existed. I discuss which bronze issues may be associated with different issues of struck silver coinage. I also consider dating, and mint locations, and I suggest various lines for further study.

Preface

Roberto Russo’s essay on unpublished Roman Republican struck bronzes in Essays Hersh1 was the genesis of this paper. His consideration of various specific styles, sizes, and weights of post-semilibral bronzes inspired me to look more closely at anonymous bronzes in general, including the extremely diverse so-called sextantal anonymous bronzes, usually classified under Michael Crawford’s Roman Republican Coinage2 (hereafter RRC) number 56. The study of anonymous coin types, of any regime, era, or metal must use all sources of information: minor design details, styles, weight, diameter, flan fabric and manufacturing techniques, die-links, overstrikes and of course find context, although there is little data on hoards or archaeological context for Republican bronzes. There are no easy shortcuts,

no symbols, letters, family names or easily recognized type differences, and correspondingly many traps for the incautious: false associations, coincidental links, and especially an over-reliance on weight as a distinguisher. Careful and disinterested attention is required. I came to know Roberto Russo only in recent years, but in this short time I was always struck by the open-minded way in which he looked at coins, without regard to prior conceptions. He would wordlessly hand me a Roman Republican bronze, invariably obverse side up, for me to look at and consider. Sometimes a second coin would follow. I would turn the coins over and digest the message – perhaps an unexpected style,

or the same obverse matched with quite different reverses, or an association he trusted I would notice. When we both understood what the coins were saying to us, words were not needed. When neither of us fully understood, it was time to suggest new possibilities and explore further. This paper investigates one large, and largely unexplored, coin series.

Sample pages below: