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The aim of this work is to help in the attribution of
the Late Roman Bronze Coinage, during the period A.D. 317-498.
The period covered by this genuine " book on line " includes
almost two centuries, from 317 A.D., when there were minted the first coins of
Licinius II, Crispus and Constantius II, owing to his joint proclamation as
caesares, until 498 A.D., the year on which the emperor of East Anastasius I
proceeded to reform the monetary system of bronze, passing to what we know as
Byzantine coinage.
The difficulty for the correct idenfication of these coins is evident;
usually the coins are very deteriorated, they have incomplete legends and
busts of practically unrecognizable emperors. With this "visual guide", we
hope to help you to obtain a precise attribution, for sure almost
impossible to obtain otherwise.
We have chosen 187 types of reverses which include the totality of the most
frequent types. You can acced to them clicking the buttons marked:
obverses by ruler, types of reverses,
reverses by legend, by
ruler and by mint.
Depending on the condition of your coin, you should look
for it starting from one or another page. See also the pages of abbreviations,
maps,
mints
and don´t forget the indexes: 1 -
2 -
3 -
4.
We show all late roman bronze coinage which we can denominate official or regular.
These work include the coins minting by the emperors and their relatives, and rebels or usurpers,
however, uncertain coins, hybrid mintings, scarce medallions, Festival of Isis
issues, false contemporanean coins, barbarian copies,
ostrogoths and vandals emissions, etc, haven’t been considered in this book.
The names of the coins (follis, centenionalis, maiorina and
nummus) are not indicated in this study, his nomenclature is too confused and we
have preferred indicating only the size (Æ 1, 2, 3 and 4). Neither the medallions
nor the hybrid coins are contemplated.
At first, the bronze coinage of this late roman period can
seem repetitive and little interesting, nevertheless the complexity -and the
beauty of this type of coins is evident and we hoped is shaped in the
information that we presented in this on-line book.
Málaga / Madrid (Spain), July 15th, 2008
Javi
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mapila 
Note from M. Pina (mapila):
I want to express my gratitude to professor Eduardo Dargent,
prestigious historian and numismatist who honor me with his friendship, for having written the prologue, but especially for having introduced
me to the interesting work of Guido Bruck: "Die Spätrömische Kupferprägung" (Graz,
Austria 1961), a small but charming book that encouraged me to undertake the task of arranging, by means of images, the
intricate information of the labyrinthian RIC and LRBC.
Task that had never been not even begun, of not having been tackled of
joint and enthusiastic form (around February, 2006) with passionate other of the
Late Roman Empire, my friend Javier Marín (Javi). A million thanks Javi.
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