In 2020, Carole Anne Menzi Collier established the Collier Prize in Ancient Numismatics at the American Numismatic Society (ANS), a new award offered for the first time in 2021. The Prize is named after her late husband, Professor James M. Collier, to commemorate the life of a remarkable man, an ardent lover of the history and culture of Europe and the Ancient World, and a passionate collector of ancient Greek and Roman coins. A feature on the life of Prof. Collier was published in ANS Magazine 2020, vol. 4.
Details for the Collier Prize can be found on the ANS’s website at numismatics.org/collier.
At the Annual Meeting held on October 23, the winner was announced: Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC) vol.II.3 on the coinage of Emperor Hadrian from 117 to 138 CE(London: Spink, 2019) by Richard Abdy. This new volume is a substantial reworking of the RIC volume (2C) that included Hadrian’s coinage published nearly a century ago. In addition to the lengthy introductory essay, itself a masterwork of scholarship, Abdy presents a catalogue of over 3,000 types of coins produced under the rule of Hadrian, along with those for Sabina, Aelius and Antoninus Caesar. Included as well are the medallions produced under Hadrian, a catalogue of which Peter Franz Mittag contributed to the volume.
Richard Abdy has worked at the British Museum since 1993 and since 1998 has been a curator of Roman coins in the Department of Coins and Medals. Aside from his award-winning RIC volume, Abdy has published widely on Roman coinage and has long been involved in recording Roman coin hoards in England. An award ceremony will be announced in the coming months.