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Those ‘Dam Dates

ld books are often dated using Roman numerals. Roman Hello Jim …
numerals (actually capital letters) are a numbering system Thank you for your reply. I have news for you - I’ve found the explana-
Odeveloped by the ancient Romans, in case we didn’t have tion. My husband’s offering was ‘perhaps they lost the M’!
enough trouble already with Latin. https://www.classicistranieri.com/wikipediaforschools/wp/r/Roman_
I=1; V=5; X=10; L=50; C=100; D=500 and M=1,000. These can be numerals.htm
added together to make in between numbers: II=2; VII=7; XXX=30. There’s quite a bit about it under “Origins” and “Alternate Forms.”
Subtraction can also be used to save room. A numeral before another in It’s somewhat embarrassing because I’ve been doing Classical Languages
a sub-group is subtracted from it. For instance, IX is used for 9 because for decades and knew I’d seen these numbers somewhere and now I’ve found
it is easier to write it that way than VIIII and it is easier to write 40 as it – in the Latin Primer I’ve used since the 70s!! I’ve just never had a reason
XL than XXXX. The date 1748 would be written M DCC XL VIII. IV to use such large numbers, so sort of ignored them - oops! I’m attaching a
is 4 and VI is 6. Because a numeral can be moved around that way, you jpeg if you’re interested. Hopefully, you can spin it and read it.
might call them roaming numerals. I notice you’ve been in the book trade since the 70s – so we probably look
So now this from the email bag about an alternate way to write like a real pair of idiots now!! I’m certainly feeling a bit shamefaced.
Roman numerals as if the usual way wasn’t complicated enough. Best wishes,
Frances
Hello from the UK …
Just to say thank you for your article “How Old Is It? Roaming Dear Frances,
Numerals and Amster’s Dam Dates.” Thanks for this
I’d spent about an “new” info! I see that
hour trying to find while I was correct
something about those that the backward Ɔ
dam dates!!! So, it was I, and C was in fact
with great relief I 1,000 just like the
found this [article]. Roman numeral M
Mine’s 1634— – it wasn’t a cute
CIƆIƆCCXLIV—so way of writing M
very happy [to] now exactly, but a vari-
know for sure. I’d sort of ant where the back-
guessed it from the book ward C and C
itself and the last half of were not broken off
the number, but thought Can you guess the date of the book in the photo? Took me a minute to puzzle it out, but it’s 1744. Using the more pieces of the ends
it was Cyrillic script or common Roman numerals, it would be written MDCCXLIV. of the letter M, or
something! renegade letter S, but in fact used as parenthesis marks and that any
Merry Christmas, numeral enclosed with parenthesis marks was multiplied by a thousand.
Frances And, using just one parenthesis mark multiplied it by 500 i.e. IƆ was
500 which looks very much like the normal Roman numeral for 500
(This was in reference to an article I had written for the Journal of which is D. But which came first—the CIƆ or the M and the IƆ or
Antiques and Collectibles in February 2003 and later put up online the D—may still be a mystery.
where my U.K. correspondent found it. Also, double parenthesis marks (( I )) would be ten thousand times
(The ‘Dam Dates was a pun on the fact that some of the few whatever number they enclosed.
examples of writing dates this way were often on books printed in Well, we both may be fossils, but at least we aren’t too petrified yet
Amsterdam in the 1600 and 1700s.) to learn something new! Or rather something old.
I wish you and yours (((( I )))) Christmas wishes which is diciens
Dear Frances, centiens milliens wishes, which is a million Christmas wishes.
Yes, it looks like it could be Cyrillic, or Martian, or anything. I still Sorry, but I couldn’t wish you a billion Christmas wishes because a
have no idea why someone would want to do that other than that it billion used to have 12 zeroes in the U.K., but only 9 zeroes in the U.S.
was a cute way of writing the date – that is, for example, instead of which I understand was the real cause of the American War for
using an M for one thousand as written in Roman numerals, the Independence, and the cry “Give me zeroes or give me death!”
bookmaker used three letters instead: a C, an I, and a backward C as an The ancient Romans solved that problem by not using any zeroes at
odd way of writing! all. Interesting that they could invent the parenthesis, but not the zero.
Jim Or the decimal.
All the best,
Jim
James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get
a “real” job. For a born collector like Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000 second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just
about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673; 410-476-3838; unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com

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