NEWP and a Question

coinnerd

I recently bought this ancient. Besides wanting to show it off I have a couple of questions.





I know it's an Augustus Tetradracm from the Antioch mint. I'm looking for a reference book that I can find it in.
The only type of a reference number I can find is RPC 4165. Does anyone know what 'RPC' stands for?
Is there a standard reference for Middle East ancients?

Sapyx

There are standard reference works, but they're not for "ancients" as a whole. RPC is one of those works.

For readily available, general-purpose catalogues, the ones issued by Sear are adequate. He's issued two volumes of "Greek", four volumes of "Roman" and one volume of "Byzantine".

He's also written a one-volume catalogue of Roman provincial, called Greek Imperial Coins, but it's nowhere near complete and comprehensive - it's really just a list of which cities are known to have issued provincial coinages during each emperor's reign, and some pictures to show what some of the types looked like. Your coin does actually happen to be listed, as number 106, CV £250, though the one in the catalogue is dated Year 31 (1 BC/1 AD), while yours is Year 29 (3/2 BC). Not sure if that makes much difference.

For a thorough listing, you need the major references. These are huge, expensive, multi-volume references - the British Museum Catalogue of Greek coins (abbreviated BMC, which includes Roman Provincials, too) runs to 29 volumes, sorted geographically. If your local university has an ancient history department, the university library may well have a set.

"RPC" stands for Roman Provincial Coinage, a slightly smaller version of BMC that only includes the Roman provincials, and it's sorted chronologically, by emperor. The one in the link there is a 2007 reprint of the first volume, for sale on Amazon for $550. There are some 12 volumes total in RPC, I believe.

Most people who collect ancient coins, especially Roman Provincials, eventually narrow down their interests to a particular city, region, or emperor, and then acquire only the specialist reference books on that particular series. I'm yet to master this art.