Roman Bronze Coins 294-364 AD, from Paganism to Christianity by Victor Failmezger is a book aimed at the collector of the coins most often found in uncleaned ancient coin lots and the area of specialty of many collectors new to the hobby. Certainly, uncleaned coins come from many other periods but this survey of the bronze issues of the time from Diocletian's coinage reform in 294 AD to the end of the House of Constantine will prove extremely valuable to those whose interests or budgets have directed their collecting efforts to this period. The book will be faulted for not including the period of bronze (looking) antoniniani or coins of the time of Valentinian and later but the intent of the author was to provide the collector a firm foundation in his area of expertise rather than to write a beginners' survey on cheap Roman coins.

This book approaches its subject from a completely opposite direction of other well known works. RIC (The Roman Imperial Coinage) covers the same material in Volumes VI, VII and VIII. Certainly RIC is more extensive, not to mention more expensive. Victor Failmezger chose to address the subject with emphasis on the types rather than cataloging the coins mint by mint as was done in RIC. Originally, the title of the new book was to be "Types, Varieties and Themes of Fourth Century Roman Bronze Coins" but the change was made, correctly, to avoid confusion from the fact that the period covered begins a bit before the start of the 4th century and ends only 70 years later. This seems particularly fortunate due to the situation of the other low priced book on the subject Late Roman Bronze Coins by Carson, Hill and Kent. LRBC lists (again, by mint) coins from the death of Licinius in 324 AD to 498 AD (the traditional start date of Byzantine style bronzes). Therefore, LRBC lacks all the coins of the Tetrarchs and of Constantine issued before he defeated Licinius.

The author made this book much more than a catalog of existing coins. While there is a numbering system, it does not parallel the traditional systems well enough to allow easy concordance. Mintmarks and officinae are relegated to minor roles. While covered in a way that provides understanding, they are omitted from the numbering system. Emphasis is on understanding of the 'why' and 'how' the coins relate to the times that produced them. Such matters as where the legends split are not considered to be of importance. Fine points of great importance to 'flyspeck' collectors (rows of stones on watchtowers or knots on laurel ties) pass with mere mention. So, the questions arise: Does the Failmezger book replace RIC? Sorry, the answer is "No!" Does it replace LRBC? No, again, but not quite so emphatically. Will the book make RIC easier to use and understand? Probably. Will the reader of this book be better prepared to understand the coins in the collection? Definitely! Do I need to buy it? Read on.

Hardly a page of the book fails to contain a table of some sort giving great volumes of information. The first chapter is a year by year record of the history of the times and the coins that reflect it. The main sections of the book are organized on three levels with a numbering system invented expressly for the book. The first level number denotes a "type". The definition of "type" is not perfectly consistent but for the most part types differ from each other by having a distinct reverse legend and subject combination. These were numbered 001 to 475 but a few were added after renumbering was impractical resulting in a few numbers like 353A. At the end of the number is a code denoting the ruler whose image appears on the coin. These were selected to be easy to remember but the number of rulers with similar names will still require a short 'break-in' period for the system before it becomes second nature. For example: Constantine I is CI while Constantine II is CII. Constantius I is C, Constantius II is CS, Constantius Gallus is CG, Constans is CN and Crispus is CR. The system might be faulted for format inconsistency since Maximianus is M, Maximinus II is M2 and Maxentius is M3 but Magnentius is MG. This change of format recognizes that the 'M' crowd had different names and not just numbers but purists will argue that MX or M4 might have been more consistent. Others, D, G, F, H etc. are pretty obvious and soon learned.

Between the type number and the ruler code, SOME types were broken down into varieties lettered with lower case a, b c .... up to ii in the case of coin type 398 (buy the book to find out which type has so many varieties). The differences that separated varieties were mostly minor additions of devices in the fields or a change in attributes of a figure. For example, on 258a, Sol holds a globe. On 258b, Sol holds Victory. On 258c, he is with a bare headed captive. On 258d, the captive wears a Persian cap.

Type 191 is distinguished from type 190 (both GENIO AVGVSTI with standing Genius) by the addition of the ligature CMH at the end of the reverse legend. 191a is the larger diameter 26mm version from Nicomedia. The 20mm Nicomedia coin is 191b. Again the book may be criticized for lack of consistency since some size reductions (e.g. in the Urbs Roma series) were assigned different type numbers rather than variety letters. This reader does not understand all of the factors that led to the distinctions between types and varieties but offers the opinion that it is a relatively minor matter compared to the book's great information on what exists and how they are related. As an example a coin might round out its number 191aG with the G for Galerius. The exact type and variety was also issued in the name of Licinius I and appears in the tables as 191aLI. The meaning of CMH is discussed in a paragraph marked 'speculative'. In several instances, the author presents material that he notes is based on speculation that might not be accepted by all students.

Some issues will lack a ruler code since they do not bear a portrait. The most common of these will be the numerous versions of Urbs Roma and Constantinopolis commemoratives. These coins will still bear type numbers and variety letters. One advantage of the new numbering system is how easily it can be applied to coins in poor condition. Many coins of the period found by 'uncleaned' enthusiasts lack enough detail to identify ruler or mint mark and can not be attributed to ruler or minor variety. Some collectors will not care about minor varieties and choose to attribute a coin only to type or type and ruler. The numbering system is quite flexible and easily used by collectors of varying degrees of expertise. A major advantage over the mint based systems is that issues shared by several mints appear together in the listings rather tha n scattered over the whole book as in RIC. This makes it easier to see the overall picture of coin production.

The book is very 'reverse' oriented. Relatively little attention is directed toward varieties of portrait type for most issues. A major exception to this is the case of type 299 BEATA TRANQVILLITAS which is divided into 27 varieties. Including an obverse descriptor would have made the ID number longer and harder to understand while some will suggest that the current three part number is complex enough. Relatively few issues are various enough on the obverse (299 is an outstanding example) that this omission will be a problem. The tables on 299 are separated from the main body of reverse varieties and could easily be missed by those unwilling to learn to read this book properly. These are decisions any author must face realizing that any choice will be criticized by a percentage of readers. Still, it would have been nice if the numbering system provided a means of separating out coins with special portrait busts. It would have been nice to include full indices that would make everything easily found. Readers may well want to add index tabs to significant pages. Using this book fully will involve much page turning.

The book is illustrated with 42 color plates, each containing 15 coins (obverse and reverse). Not every type is illustrated and some types are represented by several coins. This is explained mostly by the decision to add as many images as possible to show that there is great variety available even within a type and variety.

Some coins are rare enough that many readers will not be aware that the type exists. Some rarities are only rare as a variety within a relatively common type. The author chose to limit his observations on rarity to the type level ignoring the possibility that there would be rare varieties of common types. The book and the plates are full of items that may be found in any uncleaned lot by a fortunate coin scrubber. It is hoped that the book will return some emphasis to rarity on the type level and detract from the artificial ratings in RIC based on limited observations of specific workshop and mintmark combinations.

Using color images of actual coins avoids one serious fault of the illustrations in most ancient coin books. It is relatively easy to distinguish between detail of the coin itself and material added or removed by patina or corrosion. Some coins show silvering; others uneven patina or some other surface irregularity that might be confusing in a black and white image. Using actual coins (rather than plaster casts) also makes the book prettier. The down side to this was that it was necessary to have the coins themselves present to be photographed. Plaster casts can be mailed one way. Assembling actual images of all 475 types would have required enough registered mail or airline tickets that the cost of the book would have skyrocketed even if it had been possible to locate a specimen of each.

The revised book title included "from Paganism to Christianity" in recognition that the period covered spans the last years of the Pagan Roman Empire (including the last Great Persecution) through the time of Constantine the Great, the first Roman Emperor to be baptized a Christian, to the reigns of the Christian sons of Constantine and the attempt at pagan restoration under Julian II the Apostate. By the end of the period covered, Christianity was firmly established as the religion of Rome. While this book is not a religious text, non collectors may be quite interested in the progression from pagan to Christian coin types.

So, is the book worth owning? Definitely, if the period covered is the focus of your collecting interest. If you are a general collector, this may be more than you really wanted to know.

Doug Smith - November 2005