Roman Coinage

Over 7,000 coins:1,000 of the Roman Republic, mostly silver; over 5,200 of the Roman Empire, mostly silver and bronze, to Anastasius (ca.35 BCE-491 CE). Contents of the Firestone Princeton collection from the Republic through Commodus (ca.2,000 coins) have been published by B. Levy and P.C.V. Bastien, Roman Coins in the Princeton University Library I (Wetteren, 1985).There are notable holdings in the coinage of Roman Corinth, the 1976 gift of Prof. and Mrs. T. Leslie Shear, Jr.; about 100 of these are recorded in Michel.Amandry, Le monnayage des duovirs corinthiens (Paris, 1988). Among the coins on deposit from the Princeton University Art Museum from the collection of Dan Fellows Platt, there are strong representations of silver denarii of the Roman Republic and of Hadrian.

With the Greek and Roman coins should be mentioned two associated holdings: (1) The foundation piece of Princeton’s collection, a group of over 5,000 plaster casts of classical coins, bought by friends and alumni of the institution in 1849, and still in their original wooden trays. (2) Twelve cased volumes of impronte, i.e. plaster casts of classical (and neo-classical) intaglio gems, made up by the Roman firm of Paoletti, active in the 18th and 19th centuries.