An Important Update to Ptolemaic Coins Online

In 2018, the ANS launched Ptolemaic Coins Online (numismatics.org/pco) as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities funded Hellenistic Royal Coinages project. PtolemaicCoins Online (PCO) is a new research tool that will ultimately provide wide access to the coins listed in the print volumes of Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire by Catharine C.Lorber, published by the ANS in 2018, the first attempt to provide a new, comprehensive standard typology and catalogue for the coinage produced by the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt since Ioannis Svoronos's Τα νομίσματα του κράτους των Πτολεμαίων published in 1904-1908.

The print volumes of Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire will eventually appear in four parts: Volume I appeared in 2018 covering the gold and silver coinage (Part I) andbronze coinage (Part II) of Ptolemy I (r. 323-282 BC) through Ptolemy IV (r. 221-204 BC). Volume II covering the gold and silver coinage (Part I) and bronze coinage (Part II) ofPtolemy V (r. 203-181 BC) through Cleopatra VII (r. 51-30 BC) is expected to appear in print by 2021. The newly updated version of PCO, released on April 24, 2020, now includesthe bronze coinages found in Volume I, Part II of Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire, in addition to the gold and silver coinages found in Volume I, Part I.

As part of the new update, examples of 590 Ptolemaic bronze coins from the ANS collection have been added to PCO, bringing the total number of available examples of all coinson PCO to 3,200 from 12 museums located around the world.

As project co-director, Peter van Alfen, noted, "The inclusion of these Ptolemaic bronzes into PCO marks a major development for researchers worldwide since these coins remainsome of the least understood coinages from antiquity. For researchers to have open access to a modern typology and to be able to see examples of the coins from collections aroundthe world will undoubtedly help further our understanding of them."

To visit Ptolemaic Coins Online, see:
http://numismatics.org/pco/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
PTOLEMAIC COINS ONLINE ANNOUNCED (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n04a08.html)