This volume is a catalogue assembling the 1,860 Roman Republican coins of the RBW collection which were auctioned in three separate sales: in the Triton III Sale, December 1999 and the Numismatica Ars Classica Sales 61, October 2011 and 63, May 2012. The first one included the bulk of RBW's gold coins and the two others the silver and bronze coins, as well as some gold coins that were in the Triton Sale. The catalogue brings together a remarkable collection of material. Although surpassed by a few older collections, e.g. the collections of Baron d'Ailly (now at the BnF, Paris) and of Max von Bahrfeldt (now in the Museum August Kestner, Hanover), for silver, the Haeberlin collection and the Charles A. Hersh collection (now in the British Museum, London), and for bronze, the Goodman collection sold in various Sales by CNG, the RBW collection is likely to be the most outstanding and complete collection of Republican coins to be sold in public sales. The collection is thoroughly illustrated with colour pictures of high quality, with many specimens also in 2:1 scale in addition to the standard 1:1 scale.

Each coin is fully described with references to Babelon, Sydenham and Crawford's RRC, and to Historia Numorum³ Italy for the early series. For each coin there is also a reference to the original source from which it was acquired and the prices in the RBW auctions. Numismatic scholars will appreciate the degree of accuracy but regret the omission of die-axes. A number of entries are supplemented by brief commentaries by the editors, and sometimes also by RBW, on the coins and their chronology or attribution to a mint.

The collector was Rick Witschonke (1945–2015), a successful businessman and distinguished connoisseur of Roman Republican coinage, who also became a benefactor, and later a curatorial staff member, of the American Numismatic Society, New York. He had not only the taste and sense to make good choices, but also a genuine interest in the historical aspects of the coins and in numismatic scholarship. His knowledge and skills benefited greatly from his friendship with Charles Hersh (1923–1999), another American coin collector, and eminent scholar in Roman Republican coinage; other collectors and coin dealers became his friends, such as Roberto Russo (1945–2012), the main editor of the RBW catalogue, along with his sons, Arturo and Giuliano, and Andrew McCabe, sub-editors of the volume. He was also fortunate to have started collecting from the 1960s, at a time when Roman Republican coins, including the gold, were more affordable.

RBW's mindset as a collector was guided by his interest in reference works, in seeking completeness and in concentration on outstanding coins. His friend and mentor Hersh was one of the editors of Rev. Edward A. Sydenham's The Coinage of the Roman Republic (1952), a reference work later replaced by Michael H. Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage (RRC) (1974), with his fundamental revision of the chronology (mainly through Crawford's study in Roman Republican Coin Hoards (1969)). RRC then became a standard manual for collectors. Over the fifty years of assembling his collection, RBW specialised in rare and elusive series. A prime example is no. 31 of the Minerva/eagle issue RRC 23/1, only recently dated and fully studied by A. Burnett and A. McCabe, in L. Sole and S. Tusa (eds), Nomismata: Studi di numismatica offerti ad Aldina Cutroni Tusa (2016), 238–68.

Among other remarkable items is a series of early cast coins (nos 5–7 ff.), including a fragment of aes signatum (no. 2). Also noteworthy are early struck coins which are extremely rare, such as no. 1, the first coin of the Roman Republican series, issued at Naples (no. 1: RRC 1/1, HN³ Italy 251) and a complete series of RRC 28 (nos 61–74), including the stater and half-stater of the so-called oath scene type (RRC 28/1–2) and the silver litra RRC 28/5. The sestertius no. 351 is a hitherto unpublished unicum, correctly identified by RBW as the fraction of quinarius RRC 85 (nos 347–350), both forming along with a denarius (also absent from RRC) the silver of the H series (R. Witschonke, NC (2008), 141–4). There are also outstanding gold coins of the late Republic and rare late Republican quinarii and sestertii such as RRC 455/3–6 (nos 1595–1597, 47 b.c.) or RRC 463/5–6 (nos 1609–1612, 46 b.c.). The inclusion of many struck bronzes, for a long time neglected by collectors, is also very valuable. Especially noteworthy are those of semilibral standard, of the period of the Second Punic War, as well as the rare semuncial series. There are many unpublished types or varieties: see also R. Witschonke in P. G. van Alfen and R. B. Witschonke, Essays in Honor of Roberto Russo (2013), 305–63.

Some dates and mint attributions should be viewed with caution; for the period up to the introduction of the denarius at some point 213–211 b.c. see A. Burnett and M. Crawford, AIIN (2014), 231–65; for the period 49–42 b.c. see B. Woytek, Arma et Nummi (2003). For the order of the anonymous series see A. McCabe in Essays in Honor of Roberto Russo (2013), 101–273. Overall, the catalogue of the RBW collection is most useful for all those who study Roman Republican coinage. It is also a record of RBW's lifework for which he was commemorated, posthumously, in a Festschrift (P. van Alfen et al., FIDES (2015)).