HISTORICAL ANCIENT ROMANÂ COINS
What do all of those abbreviations mean?
This abbreviation refers to Roman Imperial coinage. This is a multi-volume work which documents the coins struck in the Roman Empire. Defining the end of the Roman Empire is not as straightforward as it seems. Some argue in ended around 476 CE, while others claim it was the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The RIC that I refer to in my attributions under the pictures of the coins was published by Carradice and Buttrey in 2007. This volume covers only the Flavian Emperors (Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian). This volume is a must for anyone who wishes to specialize in Flavian coinage.
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This volume is the most complete catalogue of the 3 I use in my attributions. This is because it is the latest and includes many coins not in BMC or RSC.This is because new types are being discovered as more finds come to light. This also means that coins that some coins that were once rare are no longer so. If I had to recommend 1 volume for the Flavian coinage collector it would be this one.
RIC
BMC
BMC or sometimes BMCRE refers to the reference work "Coins of the Roman Empire in the British museum"by Mattingly. This is a multivolume work that covers many of the coins struck during the life of the Roman empire. For my purposes Volume 2 that covers the Flavian emperors is a very important reference. While true that RIC (2007) contains many types that BMC does not, it is still a very useful book. There is some excellent information here outside of the catalogue itself. I quite like Mattingly's writing style as well. My copy is the 2005 reprint of the 1966 edition. This is important because there are editions which do not copy the latest changes made to the volumes.
RSC
This abbreviation refers to Roman Silver Coins. The original work was written by H.A.Seaby. My copy was revised by R. Loosely and is the third revised edition (2004), The one I use the most for my collection is volume 2 which covers Tiberius to Commodus. This work is based upon Henry Cohen's earlier work Medailles Imperiale. When the number has a letter beside it in the reference listing it means that this coin was not in Cohen. Keep in mind that this coin is useful for Silver coins only. No bronzes here.