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Chapter2
Outlinehistory
ofRomanRepublicancoinage
ThestudyofthehistoryofthecoinageoftheRomanstate,includingthat
oftheRepublicanPeriod,hasahistorygoingbackseveralcenturies.Inthepast
twohundredyearsinparticulartherehasbeenanimpressivecorpusofrelevant
literature,suchascoincataloguesandawiderangeofanalytical-descriptivestudies.
OfthesethevolumeessentialinthestudyofRomanRepublicancoinagedefinitely
continuestobethecatalogueprovidedwithanextensivecommentarywrittenby
MichaelH.Crawfordoverfortyyearsago.
18
Admittedly,someargumentspresented
therein,suchasthedatingproposedforparticularissues,havemetwithvalid
criticism,19butforthestudyofRepublicancoinfindsfromnorthernterritories,
substantiallyremovedfromtheMediterraneanworld,thisisaminormatter.In
thestudyofcoinfindsrecoveredinourstudyareafrompre-RomanandRoman
periodprehistoriccontexts,wehaveveryfew,andusuallyquitevague,references
toanabsolutechronology(i.e.theagedeterminedinyearsoftheCommonEra)
thereforedoubtsastotheveryprecisedatingofsomeofthecoinissuesaretheleast
ofourproblems.Thisisespeciallythecasewhenthesedoubtsareraisedmostly
withrespecttotheoldercoinsoftheseries.Thesetypesseemtohaveenteredthe
territorytothenorthoftheSudetesandtheCarpathiansafewscore,andinsome
cases,evenoverahundred,yearsaftertheirdateofminting.Itisquiteimportant
ontheotherhandtobeconsistentinouruseofthechronologicalfindingsrelated
totheRomanRepublicancoinage,inourcase,thoseofM.H.Crawford,when
comparingthecorpusofcoinfindsfromourstudyareawithanalogicalmaterials
fromotherregions.
Todate,therearenoexamplesoftheearliestcoinsandpre-monetarycoinage
oftheRomanRepublicamongthecoinfindsfromtheareaofCentralandEastern
EuropefoundnorthoftheSudetesandtheCarpathians.Thereforethereislittle
18Crawford1974.IfnotindicatedotherwiseinformationincludedinChapter2,includingthe
dateofissueofthecoins,weredrawnfromthisstudy.ForadiscussionofRomanRepublicanmint-
inginPolish:Kunisz1994;Ziółkowski2001;Awianowicz2010;ZaworaSkabiczewski2011.
19Seee.g.HershandWalker1984,pp.103-134;Ziółkowski2001,pp.337-338;Mattingly2004,
pp.199-214and227-234.
