How to

Searching

acsearch.info uses a so-called Boolean full-text search with the following operators:

Operator	Description
*	The * (Star) serves as a placeholder and can be used at the beginning or at the end of a word. It is automatically attached to words with three or more characters to generate as many search hits as possible. Examples: sest* finds all records starting with sest, f.e. both Sesterz and Sestertius. *drachm finds all records ending on drachm, f.e. both Tetradrachm and Dekadrachm. To expand the example given above, it is also possible to use *drachm* to also find all German forms like Tetradrachme.
"..."	When searching with quotation marks, only exact matches will be delivered by the search engine. Examples: "T CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG" only finds records including T CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG in this specific form, thus ignoring a record such as T CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG. It is possible to use placeholders (*) within quotation mark searches, f.e. "T CAESAR VESPASIAN* AVG", thus finding both T CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG and T CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG. The placeholder may also replace full words, f.e. "T * VESPASIAN AVG". This query will find records such as T CAE VESPASIAN AVG, T CAES VESPASIAN AVG, T CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG, etc.
"..."~x	When searching with quotation marks followed by a ~ (tilde) and a number, only results, where the words between the quotation marks occur within x words from each other, appear. Example: "aureus 182"~5 only finds records where the two search terms aureus and 182 occur within 5 words of each other
"..."/x	When searching with quotation marks followed by a / (forward slash) and a number, only results, where at least x of the words between the quotation marks are found, appear, regardless of the combination and order. If results are sorted by relevance, those records with the most matching words appear at the top. Example: "Fortuna rudder cornucopiae altar garlanded"/4 finds all records that contain at least 4 of the 5 words (in any combination and order).
(...)	Queries using brackets order words into subgroups. Example: A query for augustus (denar aureus) finds all records containing either the words augustus and denar, or augustus and aureus.
-	A preposed – (minus sign) excludes a word from a query. Example: aureus -augustus finds all records containing aureus, but excludes the ones that also contain augustus.

The various operators may also be combined in queries.