Legends and Inscriptions

E6　—　Read them, and everything comes closer

EID MAR—just six letters. "The Ides of March." The day Caesar was stabbed. The assassin Brutus had this date struck on a coin. If you cannot read it, it is just an old silver coin. If you can, it is a political declaration from two thousand years ago.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): About 8 min (4,099 characters of text at 500 chars/min; exercises and readings not included)　／　Beyond the text: 11 exercises · 5 coins · 11 readings

What this course teaches you to do

• You can read the abbreviations common in Roman legends by consulting a table.
• From a legend you can extract clues that narrow the date.
• You can treat the very absence of a legend as information.
• You can spot cases where the same legend carries a different meaning in a different age.
• Can treat "inscriptions with uncertain readings" and "dates disconnected from the actual year" as information, rather than as errors.
• Can distinguish between inscriptions of usurpers and imitative inscriptions, and use a framework to infer the source and reason for the borrowing.

Lessons (8)

1. There are only so many abbreviationsThere are only so many abbreviations. Do not memorise them; look them up. U is V, J is I.
2. The legend narrows the dateRoman coins carry no year. Derive a range from the counts of TRP and COS; often it cannot be narrowed to one year.
3. Having no legend; not changing the legendHaving no legend is information; so is a legend that never changes. A struck numeral may not mean what it says.
4. Coins of letters only, coins of value onlyWhere an axis is thin, the subject may not be thin — the classification may simply not reach it.
5. An Unreadable Name — WadōkaichinThe issuing state itself did not record the reading. That it is undecided is not a defect, but the reality of a historical source.
6. The Frozen Date — The Eternal Year 1780The date on an inscription is not always the year it was actually struck. When trust resides in the design, time freezes.
7. Borrowed Legends — From the Emperor's Name to the King'sA new power first borrows the legend of an old authority. The moment the legend changes to its own name is the moment it stands on its own.
8. Emergency Inscriptions — The Promise of Siege MoneyIn times of emergency when shape and material were abandoned, only the inscription and face value were protected. The inscription is the last bastion of trust.

Readings (11)

• The Roman Republic　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　43 BC　The Camp of Brutus
  EID MAR. What six letters assert. This is the starting point of the course.
• The silver of Massalia　France　the end of the 6th century BC–the 5th century BC　An olive grove at Auriol, Provence
  §3. 2130 silver coins without a legend. Having no letters is information too.
• Austria　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　from AD 1780　The Eternal Year 1780
  §3. The scene where the date ceases to be the year of striking. An example of not swallowing a struck numeral whole.
• The money of the siege　Britain　the 1640s　Newark under siege
  Siege money. When neither shape nor design can be kept, only the value and the punch remain.
• The Wadō kaichin　Japan　from 708　On the coin's inscription
  Section 5. "It has been called that without being decided"—a textbook example of an inscription with an unsettled reading.
• The Maria Theresa thaler　Germany　from 1780　The mint of Vienna
  Section 6. A silver coin that froze time. The process of an era name becoming the name of a type, in the original text.
• The gold of the Visigoths　Spain　575–711　Toledo and Mérida, minting cities
  Section 7. From the emperor's name to the king's name. The moment an inscription came to stand on its own.
• Coin struck on paper　Netherlands　1573–1574　Leiden
  Section 8. The inscription a city that ran out of silver put on paper. "This is for freedom."
• More Than One Mint　Korea　17th–19th centuries　The Coin's Reverse
  A single character on the reverse of a yopchon: 'Ho' for the Hojo (Treasury) or 'Hun' for the Hullyeon Dogam (Military Training Command). This is how to read the coin's self-declared 'birth registration,' indicating in which government office's furnace it was made.
• Made by Copying　Turkey　1690　Engraver's desk
  The Hijri year 1099 inscribed on the new zolota is the year Suleiman II ascended to the throne. Please observe the practice of inscribing the accession year and read the date from this non-Gregorian calendar as it is.
• In the Name of a Dead King　Greece　From 323 BC　Mints After the King's Death
  About 90% of the coin types bearing the name of Alexander were issued after the king's death. Please confirm from the distribution in the catalogue that the name in the inscription does not necessarily indicate the issuer.

Assessment

11 exercises in this course (7 check, 1 compare, 3 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.