Sear Roman Coins

I originally wrote this review for Cointalk.com, and posted it on Oct. 3, 2020. The below update was made June 16, 2025.

Sear, David R. Roman Coins and Their Values. The Millennium Edition. (London: Spink, 2000-2014).

Series Grade: B-

I made the decision to lump all of the Sear volumes into a single review, since they are all a product of the same author, and thus praise and criticism is (for the most part) applicable to all volumes. This series of books began as a single volume published in 1964, and then revised multiple times with the last single volume released in 1988. The ‘Millenium’ edition (which is reviewed here) was intended to be a further revision, splitting the book into two volumes. However, it is clear that Sear did not foresee his work blossoming into the five volumes that it eventually became (as evidence by each preface stating that only one more additional volume would be needed). In many ways the five volume set is useful as it is more complete, but the unintentional expansion of the series is also the cause of many of the criticisms I have.

For those unfamiliar, Sear’s books are a catalogue of ancient Roman numismatics. It is by no means complete, and Sear acknowledges this, but it is fairly comprehensive (as best as I can tell - I am more a medievalist). But the comprehensive nature of the catalogue seems to bear fruit in the later volumes when Sear seems to have finally given in to it being a multi-volume work. The first volume (covering the Republic and the ‘Twelve Caesars’) feels like it is missing a lot, and perhaps this is simply because Sear acknowledged that he would not cover the coins of the Social Wars (since these issues were not technically Roman, pg. 115). And though I am not a specialist in Roman coins, I have a few coins that were covered in the first or second volume which Sear lacks a record. However, I can easily find a catalogue reference to any of my later Roman coins, despite any strange oddity.  

The introduction is a bit frustrating, as it is meant to be an introduction to the entirety of Roman coin production, and not targeted to a particular volume. I again believe this to be a product of the unintentional growth of the project. Because of the wide scope of the introduction (which is repeated practically verbatim in each volume, and at 74 pages in length takes up a substantial part of each book), very little is included on Republican coinage, and the focus seems to be more on the imperial side. As such, the section on dating later imperial coins is pointless to the reader of Volume 1. However, if a new collector were to come to these volumes with the sole purpose of focusing on the reign of one or two emperors (and thus would only need one volume), then it is a nice touch to have the overarching history of Roman coins.

The books shine on their usability however. With a little practice, it is easy to find a record of most coins (provided they are included). Once someone is able to determine the emperor of their coin, it is a simple matter of using the glossary in the back to find where the emperor is in the book, matching up the obverse legend and design with the key, then finding the appropriate reverse (ordered by denomination, then legend alphabetically). This works particularly well for the imperial coinage, but is not quite as easy for Republican coinage which is more reliant on visual styles than legends. Each of the emperors has a short biographical introduction which also includes their contribution to the coinage. These are easily digestible for learning about a single coin, but can get rather repetitive for some of the later emperors if one happens to read everything through like a regular book (as I did). Certain coins also have additional background information after their catalogue number, although there is a frustrating tendency to not picture the coins which have the interesting background stories (and then no background information given for the coins which are pictured). This has been my largest complaint about these volumes, frankly. Let us SEE the really interesting ones which the author has deemed worthy of extra written attention!

Likely the reason most people own a copy of these books is the price. At between $60 and $80 a volume (used; the prices quoted above are for new copies ordered from Mr. Sear’s website), this is a more budget friendly catalogue than the more complete Roman Imperial Coinage series (considering there are fewer volumes, and RIC doesn’t include Republican coins). I am assuming that at the time the first edition was published in 1964, the inclusion of values for the coins was considered more important (as if it were the ‘Red Book’ for Roman coins), but this seems an unnecessary inclusion today, as it would be nearly impossible to keep this current in book form. But, ‘And Their Values’ is in the title, so the precedent must stay.  

While I have given this series a B-, let me say there are some very useful and positive aspects about it (as mentioned above). While I was initially hesitant to use Sear as my home catalogue on Roman coins, I have found that these books fit my needs just fine. But, if the first two volumes were expanded into two volumes each, and a more focused introduction was provided for each volume, I would have no qualms putting this series in the ‘A’ category.