Imagines Imperatorum - Images of Power - Roman Portraits on Coins -

NEW Roman Portrait Coin Book PORTRAITS - 500 years of Roman Coin Portraits		If interested in more information please send email to: romancoins.info   @yahoo.com
	Click here for table of content and sample pages Sample Images 1     Sample images 2      Sample images 3	First edition ISBN 978-3-922840-36-7 Second enhanced edition ISBN 978-3-922840-40-4

1st Century BC
1st Century AD
2nd Century AD
3rd Century AD - Severan Dynasty
3rd Century AD - Military Emperors
4th Century AD
5th Century AD

Imperial Portrait types were controlled by the imperial administration, aligned to and combined with propaganda messages such as military victories, or strength of the dynasty. Portraits were distributed to the people across the empire using different and parallel news media. Main news media were sculpture, paintings, medals, and coins. Roman coins of even the most shortlived emperors survived till today, as millions and millions of coins were issued, and people in ancient times proactively tried to hide them away due to their intrinsic metal value. Thus coins are a major source of information for Roman imperial portraits. Except the most esotheric usurpators, all Roman Emperors and many of their family members had coins with their portraits issued.
For a recent example showing the value of Roman coins for portrait research see for an article on Geta and Caracalla by clicking on this link.

In this section we present high quality portrait coins for every Emperor or family member known to have been shown on Roman coins, with portraits from the late Roman Republic after the middle of the 1st century BC to Justinian 1st in the early 6th century AD. Coins were selected for highest quality representation of each portrait type and best state of conservation.