Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (11.2016)

RECENZJE / REY1EWS

of the volume is very similar to the other parts of this series, except for the fact
that the main introduction is placed at the beginning of Part 2 and not before
the catalogue as in the previous volumes.
In the introduction to the catalogue, prominence is given to references to
individual collections, the most important sources in the bibliography, and lists
of the pertinent minting centres, indicating their territorial extent. Each province
is briefly characterized: we are provided with such information as the details
in regards to the province’s establishment, its borders, its territorial extent, its
minting output, and its division into particular regional centres. This essential
information is complemented with references to the fundamental literaturę on
the coinage in each region. Furthermore, various aspects of coinage, including
such primary issues as chronology, attribution, and a variety of other assumptions,
are discussed. For the most part, the information given includes details on standards,
metrological values, types, and references to further bibliography.
The generał introduction provides the historical background, production,
denominations, images, and legends of the coins. The chronology of the individual
coins of Trajan and Hadrian can be determined on the basis of titles such as
Dacicus (beginning in December 102), Optimus (from June 114), Parthicus
(from February 116), Pater Patriae (probably from 128), and Olympius (probably
from 129). Provincial coins also feature images of various members of imperial
families (Plotina, Sabina, Aelius, Marciana, Matidia) or people associated with
them (Antinous). Unfortunately, determining the correct dates of production
of certain coins is very often complicated or even impossible. Some of those coins
have no titles, dates, or any specific portrait (much like the pseudo-autonomous
coins attributed to cities in the provinces of Asia or Judea). The part referring
to the historical background is complemented with references to the primary
bibliography on a given reign, including its period and coinage.
The production of individual denominations is described in the next chapter.
Gold coinage was issued in Romę and the Bosporan Kingdom, while silver
provincial coins were minted for Cyrene, Crete, Lycia, Galatia, Cappadocia, and
Syria, but also for particular cities in Bithynia and Pontus, Cilicia, and Syria.
Based on the stylistic similarities of the coin dies, Kevin Butcher divides the silver
coinage minted in Trajan’s reign into three groups: those struck in Romę, those
in Alexandria, and those in Antioch (or, possibly, using the dies madę there).
The examination results for the silver content have been unsatisfactory,
as the content values for the coins prove to be very similar. The centralization
of the production of silver coinage was characteristic of the reigns of the Flavian
dynasty, of Nerva, and of Trajan. Certain types of the bronze coins intended
for circulation in the territories of Cappadocia, Cyprus, Cyrene, and Syria were