Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE), a joint project of the American Numismatic Society and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, is a revolutionary new tool designed to help in the identification, cataloging, and research of the rich and varied coinage of the Roman Empire. The project records every published type of Roman Imperial Coinage from Augustus in 31 BC, until the death of Zeno in AD 491. This is an easy to use digital corpus, with downloadable catalog entries, incorporating over 43,000 types of coins.

As of April 2017, OCRE provides links to examples present in nearly 20 American and European databases (both archaeological and museum in context), including the ANS collection, the Münzkabinett of the State Museum of Berlin, and the British Museum, now totalling over 100,000 physical specimens. Between these collections, OCRE is now able to illustrate 50% of the imperial coin types that it contains. Moving forward, as more collections join the project, it will eventually incorporate and display almost all recorded Roman Imperial coin types. Furthermore, it draws findspot information from another ANS-developed resource, Coin Hoards of the Roman Republic, enabling the mapping of the distribution of early Augustan types. Geographic data are also provided by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Antike Fundmünzen Europa, OpenContext, and other partners. For more information on project partners, please see the contributors page.

OCRE is made possible by stable numismatic identifiers and linked open data methodologies established by the Nomisma.org project. Coin type data are made available with an Open Database License. All images are copyright of their respective institutions. OCRE is built on the numbering system created by the Roman Imperial Coinage series. For details of the printed volumes of his series please visit Spink & Son (https://spinkbooks.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=60_65).

Collaborators

ANSISAWDAI
Berlin
Spink & Son

Support

In May 2014, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded OCRE $300,000 as part of the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program, to be dispersed over three years, to complete the project. Press release

Get Involved

Please consider becoming a Member of the American Numismatic Society, the publisher of this resource. Your membership helps maintain our free and open digital projects and data, as well as other educational outreach activities that broaden public access to numismatics. Membership comes with other benefits, such as the ANS Magazine and weekly virtual lectures and discussions. See Membership for more information.

Linked Data

AtomPelagios VOiDnomisma VOiD