SCADS: Seleucid Coins Addenda System

SCADS: Seleucid Coins Addenda System

 

In 2002 and 2008 the American Numismatic Society and Classical Numismatic Group published the two parts of Seleucid Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue, by Arthur Houghton, Catharine Lorber, and Oliver Hoover. The first part, by Houghton and Lorber, presented and interpreted all the  numismatic material for Seleucus I to Antiochus III known up to 2002. The second part, by Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover, did the same for the Seleucid kings from Seleucus IV to  Antiochus XIII. In total, more than 2,491 primary coin types were published in these volumes.

No sooner had these important books come out in print than new types and varieties began to appear at the rate of almost 100 a year. This rapid growth of material made necessary the development of a system that could keep up with the coins. The Seleucid Coins Addenda System (SCADS) is intended to provide online access to the new material that has appeared since 2008. As there is no indication that the flow of previously unrecorded types and varieties will stop anytime soon, it is expected that the SCADS database will continue to grow over time. Interested parties will be instantly notified of new additions to the database through alerts on Facebook, Twitter, and direct email subscription.

The coins in the SCADS database are categorized by ruler, making it easy for users to find all new entries for a particular king with a single click. Extensive tagging of entry content allows for full searchability. Thus, for example, a user interested in all new material depicting Apollo  would simply enter “Apollo” as the search criterion and SCADS would provide all the relevant entries. If a user was interested only in Apollo on issues of bronze denomination C, “denomination C” could be added to narrow down the search. The coins in the database have all been given a unique catalogue number (SCADS1, SCADS2, SCADS3, etc.) for ease of reference, but these only reflect the order of entry and are not tied to the numbering system used in the Seleucid Coins volumes.