This price guide is a book for the collector rather than the scholar and, as such, has to be pocket-sized and inexpensive. It assumes that the reader will be more interested in assigning a coin to its proper period or Emperor than in working out the meaning of the design on the reverse and, therefore, whilst most of the usual obverse portraits and legends are illustrated, the reverses are dealt with in a much more cursory manner. As an aid to identification, all illustrations are as close to life-sized as possible. Remember, that often Roman coins are not completely circular like modern coins. Further, not all Roman base-metal coins are included. This is a selection of the available material, including the vast majority of the coins the collector is likely to encounter in 'real life'.