Identifying late Roman bronze coinage....new book available

Late Roman Bronze Coinage – An attribution guide for poorly preserved coins

The most common type of artefact listed in the Portable Antiquities Scheme database is the Roman coin. The vast majority of these metal detecting finds date from the late Roman period. Whilst we all dream of discovering Museum quality pieces, the reality is that most of our detecting finds are worn or corroded to the extent that identification can be an incredibly difficult task......Read more ......

This is made more complicated by the fact that traditional numismatic literature is largely text based, assuming that you have a perfectly preserved specimen. However, if you pay attention to the iconography or images of the coins, it is quite possible to identify the coin type, ruler and mint, even in the absence of properly preserved legends and mintmarks.

This book was originally  written by Guido Bruck who was a curator of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches museum, which meant that not only did he have access to the best collection of 4th century bronze coins in the world, but he was also in charge of dealing with the poor condition coins coming in from detector finds.

He therefore published this guide which allows the  identification of coins using only iconographical elements:

Late Roman Bronze Coinage – An attribution guide for poorly preserved coins

The book has been out of print for 50 years and has now been translated into English by Alistair Menzies, which was a real labour of love. As you can see by the pictures the illistrations are second to none, you can really appreciate the time that has gone into this book.

This fantastic book  is available in both hardback and softback for around £25.00.
Please contact Alistair for more details and please mention Metal Detecting 101 or Gary's Detecting when you enquire.

alisdair.menzies@gmail.com