Reference Books

As I posted in an earlier thread, I have stepped into the ancient coin waters. Having been a coin collector for many years, I have used the Red Book of U.S. Coins as my main reference source. I understand that ancients are a different animal. Any suggestions as to some basic reference books? I have seen a series of books by Wayne Sayles. Is this a good place to start? I realize of course that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of books on ancient coins, just looking for a starting point.

 

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The books that will be useful depend on your collecting area. If you like the Flavians I highly recommend new RIC Volume II part one (2007). Try to get one on sale, they can be pricy. If you like silver imperial coins then the Seaby volumes Roman Silver Coins (RSC) are good references. You also might want to look at the David Sear books. I use the first volume quite often because my focus is the first century CE. These volumes are great but they can get pricey. If you know what area you are interested in then you can pick the volumes that work for you. If you just want a general introduction the Sayles books are a very good start.

Welcome to the fascinating hobby of ancient coins. Please feel free to ask questions. The folk on this site are a helpful lot.

 

not legally available though.

 

There is nothing like the Red Book for ancient coins. Sayles is good for general introductions to the different subjects. Tons of free and legal stuff though. Check FORVM Ancient Coins - lots of good articles and websites there.

 

Like JWT, I think the Wayne Sayles books are a nice overview.

This topic comes up with some frequency so here are some links you can review for suggestions:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-books.257696/#post-2055544

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/best-first-book-to-purchase-on-ancients.295615/#post-2726041

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-resources.309870/#post-2975566

There is an amazing and overwhelming volume of books out there. You could just read the plethora of information online (sites like Doug's or Valentinian's or several other CT members' websites, plus the articles and resources on Forum Ancient Coins) and the buy books as your interests dictate.

I just noticed that @Valentinian has some books to give away for the cost of shipping (in addition, he has other books for sale and coins for sale). Go here to see the giveaway books: http://augustuscoins.com/books.html

 

I would recommend Sear’s Roman Coins and Their Values, the early one volume edition (1978, maybe?), and his two volume work Greek Coins and Their Values. He also has a Byzantine book and a Greek Imperial/Roman Provincial books. Those are all very nice, fairly comprehensive type catalogs with lots of information and can be bought second-hand for a real bargain.

 

Welcome to ancient coin collecting @Lawtoad ! I hope you have as much fun learning history and coins as I have. I think the first book in the series by Sayles is a good starting place. I started with a book of the Roman emperors (not a coin book, but had coin pics of most emperors) for $35 at the coin shop where I started buying ancient coins. From there I moved to Sear, Grueber and Crawford in the Roman Republican coin area. I like https://www.acsearch.info/. You can see lots of coins like those you can buy.
Are you a lawyer? Maybe you can tell us when the following Volumes of RIC are out of copyright. I think Vol 1 should be out of copyright this year (95 years after issue), but I am not of sound legal mind on the subject. It looks like a few are out of copyright in the next few years if the 95 year time is correct.

vol 1: Augustus–Vitellius (31 BC–69 AD), 1923
vol 2: Vespasian–Hadrian (69–138), 1926
vol 3: Antoninus Pius–Commodus (138–192), 1930
vol 4a: Pertinax–Geta VII and Caracalla (193–217), 1936
vol 4b: Macrinus–Pupienus (217–238), 1930
vol 4c: Gordian III–Uranius Antoninus (238–253), 1949
vol 5a: Valerian–Florian (253–276), 1927
vol 5b: Marcus Aurelius Probus–Maximian (276–310), 1933
vol 6: The Diocletian Reform–Maximinus II (294–313), 1967
vol 7: Constantine I–Licinius (313–337), 1966
vol 8: The Family of Constantine I (337–364), 1981
vol 9: Valentinian I–Theodosius I (364–395)
vol 10: The Divided Empire, 395–491, 1994
Western Roman Empire : Flavius Honorius–Romulus Augustus (395-476)
Eastern Roman Empire : Flavius Arcadius–Zeno (395-491)

 

Sayles is a great place to start. Each volume is affordable compared to more specialized books. Sayles will also autograph them if you buy from his Amazon or Vcoins store. Then as you develop a direction you can buy more specific topic books.

Luckily Wildwinds.com can help you with RIC numbers until you lay down the serious $$ for those books if that’s where your interests take you.

Thank goodness for the Internet. So much knowledge is available just for the cost of internet access.

 

Indeed, but beware of charlatans and false profits (posters and experts). Rely only upon proven legitimate resources........

 

A (free) place that I've been going to help with RIC numbers, etc is Numismatics' Online Coins of the Roman Empire tool, http://numismatics.org/ocre/

 

Agree. These were among my first books and there is a lot there.

The big question in my mind is whether you care to know more than what exists and what it is worth. Beginner books that do not assign catalog numbers and don't give 'values' are not common. Sayles is not bad but the whole set is not cheap. That is why I suggest using all the online resources (including CT) until you are ready to go to the next level of slightly more scholarly books.

 

Thank you everyone for the comments. I knew there was a vast body of works on ancient coins, knowing where to start is the challenge.

 

I may have missed a book at some point but I do find it surprising that there isn't an accessible "Red Book"-esque book for ancients. Covering every type would obviously be impractical but I don't think that's what new collectors want: they want an overview and a rough level of insight into what's available.

David Vagi's recent series of articles on CoinWeek are something along the lines of what I'm thinking, limiting the overall list to maybe ~200 major types (see https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/ngc-ancients-classic-greek-coins-part-i/ ). There are 137 coins in the major US typeset and something similar in scope would be manageable for a new ancient collector.

I suspect this is why Harlan Berk's "100 Greatest" book is so well received but it is biased. It would instead be useful for a book to be written of the "200 Ancient Coins You Should Know"; not the impossible-to-collect rarities that exist by a single example but the major types that are accessible and interesting.

Then, further chapters could be written on the rarities/famous coins/etc. but those aren't the ones that will grab and keep the interest of new collectors.

 

Agreed. The one volume Roman Coins and Their Values that comes to mind is the 1988 edition though. Prices (values) aren't accurate anymore but can be used as a relative rarity scale. Having acquired the millenium 5 volume edition I don't use it anymore but it's still a good book to get started I think

Q

 

Especially if one is looking for a Red Book style catalog. The Sayles books are a totally different animal.

 

When I started collecting, 20 years ago, the first book I bought was Handbook Of Ancient Greek & Roman Coins by Klawans and Bresset. At that time there were still bookstores and some carried it. It is still in print, shares one author with the Red Book, same size as the Red Book, and same price.

https://www.whitman.com/store/Inventory/Detail/Handbook-Of-Ancient-Greek--Roman-Coins

If your cousin told you he was interested in collecting US coins you would not tell him to buy a book on large cent die variety parings. Klawans shows a coin from nearly all of the Greek cities and each Roman ruler. You can get a used copy shipped to your door for $5.

If you want to see what it looks like go to https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Ancient-Greek-Roman-Coins/dp/030709362X and click "Look Inside" then "Surprise Me".

 

I forgot about Klawans. That is probably the best first purchase to make.

 

Sounds like a good project for you! We'll look forward to reviewing it next Spring.

 

It would be an enjoyable book to write but based on my lack of available time to even write up the coins in my own collection, it'll probably never come to fruition.

I've thumbed through this book and it is indeed in the vein of what I was envisioning. That said, the photography and presentation is sorely lacking and unlikely to inspire a new collector (perhaps harsh but we're in the 21st century; I think we can show coins in color these days). That said, has it been updated? The cover shown on Amazon is different from the 1995 edition.