ROMAN COIN LETTERING

Ancient Roman Capitalis Monumentalis lettering and its modification and adaptation by the coin engravers of the Roman Empire (with photographic examples of early, later and Tetrarchic coin lettering). I frequently post notes and addenda on this integral Message Board. Visitor posts, including questions, are most welcome.

Capitalis Monumentalis

The inscriptional letterforms found on Roman coins are based on those of CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS employed by stone cutters for edifices, monuments, tombstones, etc. A particularly fine extant example is found on Trajan's column in Rome and the essential constructs of these letterforms are the models for all Majuscule (Capital) alphabets used in the western world. Stonecutters in particular still employ their distinctive proportions and terminating serifs. It should be noted that only twenty letters were used in the ancient Roman alphabet : A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V X. Our modern J and U were not used, their equivalents being I and V respectively. Thus, our modern JULIUS was written IVLIVS. The letter K was seldom used and then only before A. The letters Y and Z were only used when reproducing Greek words. W was not part of the ancient Roman alphabet at all. It was Medieval scribes who eventually formalized the construction models for the letters J K U W Y Z. Capitalis Monumentalis lettering is at the apex of the "Hierarchy of Scripts" for Calligraphers and is often used by them for especially important headers in pen and ink renditions.

There are numerous excellent photographs of actual CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS lettering (including that on Trajan's column) mostly accompanied by location information, translations and analyses, at Bill Thayer's Latin Inscriptions section of his LacusCurtius web site

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Rendering Roman Capital Lettering: letterform structure & proportions and the number & order of strokes.

Adaptation of Capitalis Monumentalis letterforms by Coin Engravers

Although in general the inscriptional letterforms employed by Roman coin die engravers, particularly those of the early Empire, closely follow CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS letterforms there are some subtle differences, mostly resulting from the limited space available on coins for inscriptional lettering. Most notably, they were modified to produce closer spacing and a compaction of the wide letters C O Q and M resulting in more uniform and "square" lettering. The essential letterform constructs were closely followed for coins of the early to mid Empire who's inscriptions are generally stately and elegant: E and F have equal length horizontal bars; A has a sharp apex; V has a sharp junction; the bowls of B P R S are always nicely formed -- P sometimes being rendered with an open bowl, i.e. not touching the vertical stem at the bottom. The quality of Roman coin lettering reached its zenith on late period Julio-Claudian coins.

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It is hard to conjecture exactly how the letterforms were rendered on the coin dies. Having cut/inscribed Roman Capital letters myself in stone, wood/linoleum blocks and various metals I can imagine the die engravers would have used a selection of chisels (burins), stamps and punches -- the quality of the lettering may therefor have depended to some extent on the skill of the tool makers. The size of the planchet and the quality of the coin metal would also be determining factors. Certainly blundered letters did occur as evidenced by the S in CAES and the S in COS on the following almost mint state Quadrans of Claudius. Rendering well proportioned and constructed Capital Roman lettering has always demanded considerable skill and it seems there has always existed a disparity of skills among the crafstsmen who executed them -- regardless of the tools and media employed.

CLAUDIUS, RIC Volume I, No. 88

Examples of early Roman Empire coin lettering

Examples of later Roman Empire coin lettering

There wasn't any sudden change in the quality of inscriptional letterforms although, as Dr. Sutherland notes (Roman Coins, page 224), by the reign of ELAGABALUS (218-222) the quality and style of coin inscriptional lettering had noticeably declined from that of the earlier Empire.

However, I think the inscriptional letterform quality is quite high on many of the early Lugdunum reformed folles as exemplified by the following "Unknown Continental Mint" Class I coins:

IMP C DIOCLETIANVS PF AVG ............................ GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI
DIOCLETIAN
RIC Volume VI (Lugdunum) No. 14a

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IMP C MAXIMIANVS PF AVG ............................ GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI
MAXIMIAN HERCULIUS
RIC Volume VI (Lugdunum) No. 14b

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FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C ............................ GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI
CONSTANTIUS
RIC Volume VI (Lugdunum) No. 17a

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There is some uneveness of letter height, but overall the lettering is quite pleasing and nicely rendered.

Examples of early British Tetrarchic coin lettering

By the time of the introduction of the British Tetrarchic coinage, the character of the inscriptional letterforms had changed significantly. They were noticeably smaller and thicker with heavier serifs. To my calligrapher's eye the early LON and unmarked folles inscriptions in particular often have poorly formed letters (however, as is the case with latter day calligraphers, not all coin die engravers were equally skilled). The graceful proportions and elegant structures of the early Empire letterforms are no longer evident. The bowls of B P R S, always difficult to execute with precision, are now often distorted or disproportional. O is often curiously small or distorted and out of round. X is given an entirely new form. The letter A (sometimes without the horizontal cross bar) now has a flat apex and V a flat bottom. T is often squat with very pronounced serifs.

Depiction of A, M, X, V Roman coin letterforms

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The following coin of GALERIUS (RIC Volume VI, Londinium, No. 33) illustrates the typically somewhat thicker inscriptional lettering with heavier serifs so noticeable on the coins of this period.

MAXIMIANVS NOBIL C ......................... GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI
GALERIUS MAXIMIAN (RIC)
RIC Volume VI (Londinium) No. 33.

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C VAL MAXIMIANVS NOB C ....................... GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI
GALERIUS
RIC Volume VI (Londinium) Intermediate Group (a)

Intermediate Group (a) issue - Lugdunum style head and British style Lettering

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The following exemplars illustrate the somewhat distorted forms of P R and O often encountered on Romano-British Tetrarchic folles (albeit some may result from uneven strikes).

The following exemplars illustrate in particular the flat top A, the flat bottom V, the strongly serifed T, the "new" form of X -- again often encountered on Romano-British Tetrarchic folles.

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Various Romano-British Tetrarchic folles inscriptions showing letterform variations:

References and Resources

• EXPLICATIO FORMARUM LITTERARUM (The Unfolding of Letterforms), Rutherford Aris, The Calligraphy Connection, St. Paul (1990)
• ROMAN LETTER FORMS (How to Render), Tommy Thompson, Holme Press, (1946)
• WRITING & ILLUMINATING & LETTERING, Edward Johnston, Pitman Publishing (various Publishers), Bath, (1973-various dates)
• LETTERING, Graily Hewitt, Seely, Service & Co. Ltd. (various Publishers), London, (1930-various dates)
• ROMAN COINS, C. H. V. Sutherland, G. P. Putman's Sons, New York, 1974
• THE ROMAN IMPERIAL COINAGE (RIC), Volume I (31 BC-AD 69), C. H. V. Sutherland, Spink and Sons Ltd, London, 1984
• THE ROMAN IMPERIAL COINAGE (RIC), Volume VI, Diocletian's reform (AD 294) to the death of Maximinus (AD 313), C. H. V. Sutherland, Spink & Son Ltd, London (1967 et al).

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