Updating OCRE Campaign

March 12, 2020
New York, NY
For immediate release

THE ANS LAUNCHES AN ONLINE FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN FOR OCRE

The American Numismatic Society aims to incorporate major new research on Roman Imperial Coinage into its hugely popular digital resource Online Coins of the Roman Empire. This is a laborious process that entails updating or amending thousands of entries, and it will take several months to complete. In order to assist this project, the ANS has launched a gofundme campaign on its charity platform.

Since its inception in 2013, Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE) has provided the numismatic community with a revolutionary tool designed to help in the identification, cataloging, and research of the rich and varied coinage of the Roman Empire. OCRE provides an easy to use digital resource incorporates over 43,000 types of coins and more than 130,000 physical coins, representing more than 40 major public and private collections from all over the world. The project records every published type of Roman Imperial Coinage from Augustus, in 31 BCE, until the death of Zeno, in 491 CE.

In January 2019, Spink & Son published Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II, Part 3, written by longtime British Museum curator Richard Abdy, with a section on medallions by P. F. Mittag. This was the first new volume in the series in 25 years, and it represents a major achievement in the field. For the ANS, this important new work, which covers the reign of Hadrian (117–138 CE), necessitates the hiring of temporary staff to aid in the replacement of some 4,000 OCRE records. The Society, in cooperation with Sprink & Sons and Richard Abdy, is now working on this process, which will take several months. The ANS is therefore asking for small donations to help integrate this very significant improvement into the online project. If you use OCRE for teaching or research, please consider donating to the ANS. No amount is too small.

The American Numismatic Society, organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 in New York State, operates as a research museum under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is recognized as a publicly supported organization under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as confirmed on November 1, 1970.