Die Münzprägung von Ephesos 5: Typenkatalog und Aufbau

The present stand-alone publication is the continuation of the postdoctoral qualification at the University of Vienna, The Coinage of Ephesos 1. The Beginnings (1995), with the new series title of MvE 1. This itself was based on earlier works 1 . Meanwhile work on MvE 2-4 has partly been finished. In contrast to MvE 1 which apart from the coin material contained also the relative analyses, MvE 5.1 is a corpus-like work which embraces the entire material accessible to the author. In a new type of presentation, the coins together with all individual information and references are (instead of the usual separation into text and illustration parts) being represented in a continuous graph structure within which not only all obverse and reserve types but also all verifiable dies are illustrated. This way presumably for the first time a material presentation has been created on the basis of which the analytic work can be much more easily started: It is a known fact that via the dies coining chains and therefore chronological evidence can be detected, but now e. g. it has in a surprisingly high amount also become clear how obverses are connected to divers reverses. Together with the type register und the legends, unexpected clues e.g. on combined issues may emerge. Taken together, the picture of the Ephesian mint during the Roman period becomes more plain, but apart from that it will also be evident whether and in which way obvious festive emissions are connected to other types: From that it will be possible to deduce how such combinations could even prove the identity of those individuals who were responsible for the coinage or even payed for it. On the other hand, in the light of size and quantity of coins it will become more evident which "nominals" were meant for daily use and which (like the coinage of the city of Rome) are to be understood as biblia pauperum or "commemorial" issues respectively reflecting a particular event. Corpora show automatically the individual extent of a coinage and the amount of preserved pieces respectively 2 . In MvE 5 an additional evidence concerning the significance of type and legend ties is created by the die connexions3 . Equally also (relatively) dating elements are extant as e. g. on coins the obverses of which show first the 3rd then the 4th neocorate. In the absence of precise stratified finds there cannot be gained absolutely dating elements. How far the well dated epigraphical material can be used for more accurate chronological classification in the case of "events" depicted on coins, will only be clear from the analytical interpretation which is planned for MvE 5.24 . Another surprising aspect of the die corpus is the fact that many of the Homonoia coins usually exclusively assigned to the mints of the partner cities often do not originate from such as proved by their Ephesian obverse dies5 . The presentation of this material in the given shape allows also that the individual die identifications as carried out by the author can be scrutinized and eventual mistakes or errors can be detected and mended by the user. 1 Stefan Karwiese, Numismatischer Teil, in Paully Wissowa`s Realencyclopaedie Suppl. 12 (1970), 297-364 and The Artemisium Coin Hoard and the First Coins of Ephesus, in Rev.Belge Num. 137 (1991), 1-28. 2 This of course renders it possible to better assess the value of pieces preserved in few or even just one example. 3 If e.g. the reverse die X is mostly connected with type Y but only once with type Z. 4 Which has been long started in the meantime. 5 Apart from Alexandreia/Egypt in whose case all Homonoia coins were undoubtedly minted in Ephesos.