Roman Imperial Collectors: What Books do you use most?

@lehmansterms Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Like you I resort to internet references almost as a last resort. I grew up and cut my numismatic teeth at the close of the printed book era in the 1980s and 1990s. I like printed books, in every way, I love the look, the feel, the smell and even the touch of an old cloth bound numismatic reference book.

I have owned LRBC and Van Meter for years, but sadly both sit unused and ignored on my shelf. For me there are just better references on Romans. Of course Van Meter has a lot of good information in the introductory sections, but as far as actually sitting down and looking up a coin, for me, never.

On the opposite end of that scale in the Richard Plant book you mention. It is my go-to source when I come across an unknown Greek coin, it is simplicity at its very best.

 

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I'm also a big fan of LRBC. You have to train yourself how to use it, and it is old. But I love it. Mine was owned by a collector named Brace, and he corrected some errors in it with a pencil.

 

Another book that I find useful, even though most of the text dates to the middle 1800s, is Seth Stevenson's "Dictionary of Roman Coins." It was published in 1889, but work was apparently begun in the 1850s. It seems to be fairly easy to find in various reprint editions, I have the 1964 Seaby edition.

 

I'm generally not a fan of books with writing in them, but that is cool!

 

Also fun is:

Guido Bruck, "Late Roman Bronze Coinage - An attribution guide for poorly preserved coins".

Excludes 5th C monograms, unfortunately. But otherwise useful.

 

What, then, would be in the books of which you are a fan? (dare I ask...)
( ;<{D}

 

OT but reminds me...
In a Johannesburg bookshop, a guy showed me a pigskin-bound 17th Century Dutch law book.

He said, "Normally I hate to find penciled scrawls in the front pages, but in this case..."

The scrawls were those of Deneys Reitz, a famous Boer commando and eventually a politician and founder of a famous law firm.

He figured it doubled the value of the book.

 

Sear 5th edition (5-volumes) and RIC. For Antonine coins, BMCRE is a great go-to resource. I'd actually like all volumes of it, but they don't often come up for sale at a reasonable price. I don't like LRBC that much; it's hard to use.

 

Page from puzzling Late Roman Bronze Coinage:

 

What I see here is books are like shoes. They have to fit our needs. I have LRBC and VanMeter but never touch them any more. I get more good out of RIC and BMC. I do like Bruck not so much because of the small number of LRBC's I get without clear mintmarks but for the way he points out minor things that I overlooked. I'm currently getting a lot of good out of Emmett's Alexandrian Coins because I'm on a kick for these at the moment but I wish I had also bought a copy of Dattari-Savio last year when thought about it. I have many questions Emmett did not answer. Of course I don't know if anyone else had those questions before and put them in their book.

I have a hundred books I probably never will use again. Some were one time reads and some cover specialties I decided was not my thing. Some are just rotten. You probably will develop a similar list over your collecting life but it may be in no way similar to mine.

I believe the reference was to added marginal notes. I prefer books with writing rather than just lists of coins but I'm introducing a third kind of 'writing'. I like text not just tables.

 

To be clear, I am not saying I do not like prose in books. When I say I do not like writing I mean the kind applied by hand with the aid of a pen or pencil by a previous owner of the book. This does not of course extend to author's autographs.

 

RIC has been my go-to books.

Doug