What do you think?
Rate this book
Scripta Nummaria Romana: Essays Presented to Humphrey Sutherland
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1978
1 person want to read
About the author
R.A.G. Carson
24 books8 followersSource: Obituary published in The Telegraph 7 April 2006
Robert Carson, who died on March 24 aged 87, was a leading expert on Roman coins, and Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum from 1978 to 1983.
Born at Kircudbright on April 7 1918, Robert Andrew Glendinning Carson was educated at Kirkcudbright Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he took a First in Classics. During the war he served with the Royal Artillery in north-west Europe, being promoted to captain in 1945.
The following year Carson joined the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum as an assistant keeper with responsibility for Roman coins, as the successor to Harold Mattingly. The offices of the department had been destroyed by a bomb in May 1941, and, although the collection had been removed to a place of safety, the work of the staff in the immediate post-war years was to rebuild the department. They did not return to their original premises until 1959.
Carson quickly established his reputation, initially by publishing new hoards and acquisitions. He developed an interest in the coinage of the 3rd century AD, the understanding of which was at that time shrouded by misattributions and misunderstandings. Written evidence of the period is limited, so coinage has seemed to offer the only systematic body of evidence on which even the most basic political and military history could be written.
The "crisis" of the 3rd century may nowadays be downplayed by historians, but it was a period of short-lived and competing emperors, and a time when the coinage saw a dramatic decline in purity, possibly suggesting an economic crisis coinciding with the political ones.
Carson's approach was pragmatic and straightforward: he marshalled the evidence and drew sensible, but not over-ambitious, conclusions. His work can be seen at its best in his sixth volume of the Catalogue of Coins of the Roman Empire. Published in 1962, it set out a systematic and convincing account of the coinages of the years 222-238, and applied his more theoretical studies of the "officina" (workshop) system of the mint of Rome.
He never completed the systematic studies he planned for the more complicated years of the middle and later part of the 3rd century, but finished many preliminary studies, including of the eastern mints of Valerian and Gallienus, of Zenobia (Queen of Palmyra, 267-272), and coinage after the reform of Aurelian, a study informed by the discovery of an enormous hoard of relevant coins at Gloucester in the 1960s.
Carson had a specific interest in the coinage of the British usurpers Carausius and Allectus, who established a separate empire in Britain in the 280s and 290s AD; and he sorted out the pattern of mints and chronology in a way that had not previously been achieved. He became very excited at the appearance of two large bronze medallions of Carausius - which he was delighted to ensure got a safe home at the museum - and was once observed to sign a letter "RAG Carausius".
Carson had a keen interest in conveying his knowledge to interested amateurs. He was a popular lecturer and wrote three general books: Principal Coins of the Romans, published in three volumes between 1978 and 1981; Coins of the Roman Empire (1990); and Coins - Ancient, Medieval and Modern. This last volume, first published in 1962, went through numerous reprintings and revisions over two decades, remaining the best single account of the coinage of the world as a whole.
As well as his own work, Carson was instrumental in ensuring that important works by other scholars also saw the light of day.
As editor of the Roman Imperial Coinage series, he can take much credit for the eventual appearance of three volumes, the first by the late JWE Pearce, the second by the Finnish scholar Patrick Bruun, and the third by his museum colleague John Kent. [...]
Robert Carson, who died on March 24 aged 87, was a leading expert on Roman coins, and Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum from 1978 to 1983.
Born at Kircudbright on April 7 1918, Robert Andrew Glendinning Carson was educated at Kirkcudbright Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he took a First in Classics. During the war he served with the Royal Artillery in north-west Europe, being promoted to captain in 1945.
The following year Carson joined the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum as an assistant keeper with responsibility for Roman coins, as the successor to Harold Mattingly. The offices of the department had been destroyed by a bomb in May 1941, and, although the collection had been removed to a place of safety, the work of the staff in the immediate post-war years was to rebuild the department. They did not return to their original premises until 1959.
Carson quickly established his reputation, initially by publishing new hoards and acquisitions. He developed an interest in the coinage of the 3rd century AD, the understanding of which was at that time shrouded by misattributions and misunderstandings. Written evidence of the period is limited, so coinage has seemed to offer the only systematic body of evidence on which even the most basic political and military history could be written.
The "crisis" of the 3rd century may nowadays be downplayed by historians, but it was a period of short-lived and competing emperors, and a time when the coinage saw a dramatic decline in purity, possibly suggesting an economic crisis coinciding with the political ones.
Carson's approach was pragmatic and straightforward: he marshalled the evidence and drew sensible, but not over-ambitious, conclusions. His work can be seen at its best in his sixth volume of the Catalogue of Coins of the Roman Empire. Published in 1962, it set out a systematic and convincing account of the coinages of the years 222-238, and applied his more theoretical studies of the "officina" (workshop) system of the mint of Rome.
He never completed the systematic studies he planned for the more complicated years of the middle and later part of the 3rd century, but finished many preliminary studies, including of the eastern mints of Valerian and Gallienus, of Zenobia (Queen of Palmyra, 267-272), and coinage after the reform of Aurelian, a study informed by the discovery of an enormous hoard of relevant coins at Gloucester in the 1960s.
Carson had a specific interest in the coinage of the British usurpers Carausius and Allectus, who established a separate empire in Britain in the 280s and 290s AD; and he sorted out the pattern of mints and chronology in a way that had not previously been achieved. He became very excited at the appearance of two large bronze medallions of Carausius - which he was delighted to ensure got a safe home at the museum - and was once observed to sign a letter "RAG Carausius".
Carson had a keen interest in conveying his knowledge to interested amateurs. He was a popular lecturer and wrote three general books: Principal Coins of the Romans, published in three volumes between 1978 and 1981; Coins of the Roman Empire (1990); and Coins - Ancient, Medieval and Modern. This last volume, first published in 1962, went through numerous reprintings and revisions over two decades, remaining the best single account of the coinage of the world as a whole.
As well as his own work, Carson was instrumental in ensuring that important works by other scholars also saw the light of day.
As editor of the Roman Imperial Coinage series, he can take much credit for the eventual appearance of three volumes, the first by the late JWE Pearce, the second by the Finnish scholar Patrick Bruun, and the third by his museum colleague John Kent. [...]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.