The bulk of MS 1140 is essentially a list of Roman silver coins, both imperial and Republican (in that order: ff.2r–199v; 200r–299v), written clearly on sheets of paper which have been ruled with top and side margins. (Some further material is appended on different-sized paper at the end of the volume: this is discussed below.) A total of 2087 coins are listed. The listing can be regarded as reasonably accurate for the high empire, but the problems of distinguishing between ‘silver’ and ‘bronze’ for the coins of the late Empire means that we cannot be sure exactly what has been included and what has been omitted. The Latin descriptions of the Republican coins are, unsurprisingly, modelled on Gorlaeus’s Thesaurus, and Ashmole was to use the same model for his catalogue of the Bodleian coins a few years later.
In addition, the main list is sometimes annotated in the margin with ‘AV’ or ‘AVR’, the abbreviation for ‘gold’, followed by a weight given in pennyweights and grains, and these weights generally correspond to the norm for relevant gold coins. Presumably, when Ashmole found a gold coin with the same description as a silver coin (inscription and design), he just made an annotation in the margin, to save the time of rewriting the description. However, as we shall see, other gold coins were also listed elsewhere.
The catalogue of imperial silver coins is divided into 25 sections, numbered thus in the lower left corner of the relevant page. It looks as if these numbers may refer to the different drawers or trays in a cabinet, which would presumably be the cabinet containing imperial silver. If so, each tray contained very different numbers of coins: 100–150 for most of the first 17 trays but then only 20–80 for the last eight. The biggest numbers of coins in a single tray are 149 and 150, suggesting large trays. It must have been a substantial cabinet, physically.
For the earlier emperors (Augustus to Trajan) we are normally given two figures at the bottom of the last page describing coins of that emperor. In the lower left, we have ‘Tot.’ followed by a numeral, obviously the total of coins listed in the preceding pages for that emperor. Such ‘total’ figures continue after Trajan until the reign of Clodius Albinus, when they stop. The totals are very helpful, as it is not always easy to isolate every single coin in Ashmole’s lists. Clearly Ashmole eventually tired of adding up the totals.
The second set of figures, which appear at the end of the reigns only from Augustus to Trajan, are in the lower right hand corner: a numeral follows a ligature that looks a bit like a joined up 7 and 3, and which must, I think, represent ‘br’, for bronze or brass. Thus, for the earlier reigns, it seems that we are given the totals of bronze, as well as a listing of the silver. We do not, however, get any such quantities of bronze after Trajan, and, once again, it seems that Ashmole must have stopped making the effort. We can see in this way how the character of his cataloguing changed over time.
(Burnett 2020b, pp. 340-1)
The listing of gold coins in the royal collection was made by Elias Ashmole in 1660, as part of his ‘discription’ of the royal collection. ...The relevant manuscript pages are included at the end of the volume, the bulk of which consists of a catalogue of his Roman silver coins, and they seem to have been added on another occasion. The pages list Greek, Roman, Modern and miscellaneous coins:
- ff.301–12 include 72 various gold coins and medals, ranging from large gold pieces of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and a gold copy of a Pisanello medal to modern English and continental pieces, including pieces of Cromwell and Francis Bacon. It includes seven ‘Arabick’ coins. The modern pieces make up the bulk of these pieces, and include coins of Charles II, and coins dated 1608, 1628, 1629, 1633, 1643, 1648, 1656, 1660 and 1662.
- f.301 is entitled ‘First Drawer’, and f.305 ‘2. Drawer’. The first drawer (ff.301–3) contained 19 mostly very large pieces. F.301 is also numbered ‘1)’ in the top l. hand corner, and f.302 is also numbered ‘2)’, but f.303 is not numbered. F.304 is blank. The second drawer (ff.305–12) had 53 smaller coins. As with the first drawer, f.305 is also numbered ‘1)’; f.306 is not numbered; ff. 307–8 are numbered ‘2)’ and ‘3)’; ff.309–10 are not numbered, and f.311 is ‘3)’.
- f.313r: Eight ‘Consular Brass Coynes’ (various Republican bronzes with moneyers’ names; 1 C Clovi Praef.).
- f.313v: Seven ‘Incerta’, all ‘AE’ (5 anonymous Republican bronze coins; 2 Invicta Roma XL bronzes).
- f.314: blank.
- f.315–18: 41 various Greek gold coins, several of Alexander (ff.315–16 labelled ‘1)’ and ‘2)’).
- f.319–20: 14 Byzantine coins; 1 ‘tres figurae that in the middle laying his hands upon the heads of the other two’; and 1 Frederick II Augustalis.
- f.321–2: blank.
- f.323-6v: 54 Roman gold coins, from Augustus to the Byzantine period.
- f.327: Latin descriptions of 20 of the same Greek gold coins listed on ff.315–18, plus 1 John Palaeologus.
- f.328: blank.
- f.329–34v: 127 Roman gold coins, from Julius Caesar to the Byzantine period; plus (f.334v) 1 gold coin of Elagabalus inscribed 'ΙΔΡCCVΛΛCΔ....’ (ff.329–31 are additionally labelled ‘1)’ to ‘3)’).
- f.335: a summary list, by ‘Drawer’. This is a list of the totals of the gold coins.
- f.336: blank.
- f.337: ‘Incerta’. Includes a coin of Cunobelin.
- f.338: Nine Republican gold coins. These are all false, and are not included as annotations to the main silver list.
- f.339r–v: ‘Antique medalls in Goulde’, etc.
(Burnett 2020b, p. 1430)
