I'm just looking around for some books on values but the ones I've found are £150+ which is crazy Is there any book out there with greek/Roman coin values in that's up to date kind of like the Spink catalogue ?
I am a beginner and I got "Greek coins and their values vol 1+2" by David Sear, a very nice book but the prices are a bit outdated. Afterwards I bought "Ancient Coin Collecting Vol. 2 - Numismatic Art of the Greek World" by Sayles W.G. An amazing book for beginners like me and you, very informative. I also received 2 days ago the book "Collecting Ancient Greek Coins" by Paul Rynearson, this one is similar as the book from Sayles W.G. but in my opinion even more easier to read and also very informative. It discusses a little bit less about the many types of different coins but more about the "collecting" of Ancient Greek coins (at what things to pay attention etc.) By the way this is only for Greek coins since I am mainly collecting those.
I don't know what "the Spink catalog" is but will assume it's something akin to a US coin collecting "red book". There are probably hundreds of thousands of types of ancient Greek and Roman coins so a comprehensive book would require a staggering number of volumes and the information would be out of date by the time it was published. There are some books about ancient coins that give values but you have to understand that those values have to be interpreted as relative. No such books will be accurate as to current values of a given coin. Even that could be misleading though if a subsequently discovered hoard makes a type of coin go from rare to common. David Sear has a series of popular books with titles like "Roman Coins and Their Values". https://www.davidrsear.com/order_books.html. Some of the books have several editions. They've been popular for decades. Bear in mind that any books which give prices for coins are out of date quickly but they can be used to get a general sense of relative value. To really understand what a given coin might be worth you have to research current sales records. CNG has extensive archives of their sales but they are just one albeit large company. ACsearch includes a wide array of auction house data but to see the prices realized you need a paid subscription. CoinArchives Pro is another database but it too is a paid subscription and it is too expensive for the casual collector. Even armed with digital databases, it can be hard to predict what a given coin will bring at auction. If two or more bidders are determined to have the coin, the price realized may be much higher than expected. It can be difficult to determine value for any given ancient coin because each coin was hand-struck using handmade dies. For a given type of coin there may be a few different dies or hundreds of different dies depending on the coin. The artistry and quality of the individual die varies, sometimes tremendously. Consider the following coins, all tetradrachms struck by the Syracusian tyrant Agathokles. All were sold in the last year prices realized for these four coins range from $250 to $8635. Coin A, graded TB-TTB (French for Fine to Very Fine): Coin B, grade not given by the German auction house although they noted it was excellent and with a nice patina; they noted the die break on the reverse: Coin C, listed as EF with fine toning: Coin D, slabbed by NGC, grade of VF 2/3 3/5: I could go on with dozens more examples, each with their own plusses and minuses. How do you account for all of the variations with a grading scheme of F, VF, EF, etc? You don't. You have to use your eyes to determine how it looks and how it compares to every other example out there and even then you'll find differences of opinion about which coin is "better" than another.
Thanks for the info both of you, and the Spink book I was talking about was the 2018 Spink coins of England book
The spink catalogue is the UK equivalent to the US red book. As TIF said, there is nothing like that for Ancients. Lovely Offa in your avatar, by the way...
There was a book attempting to do all for Roman Imperial coins. It did not cover Roman Republican or any other ancient coins. It came in two volumes: https://www.amazon.com/Coinage-history-Roman-Empire-B-C/dp/0944945295/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533821500&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=vagi roman coins https://www.amazon.com/Coinage-History-Roman-Empire-II/dp/0944945317/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1533821500&sr=8-2&keywords=vagi roman coins I liked the books a lot but you should not rush out and buy a set without understanding HOW the book worked. The first volume was just a history of the period that produced the coins. If you already know all this or if you don't care about history you can skip this volume. If you don't care about history, you probably won't be a long term ancient collector. The two go together. Volume two covered coins in a unique manner. Each emperor was listed and prices given for several grades of his coins. Nothing was given to list reverse types available but just "Nero" "VF" and a price which was a guesstimate then based on the author's experience and might need some intelligent modifications to allow for the last 20 years. After the general listing, the author pointed out a few 'special' reverses that carried higher prices. For example he listed garden variety VF Nero sestertii at $500 to $800 but specifically listed the popular Port of Ostia type at $3000 to $5000. Many people missed the point and were upset that no mention was made of the reverse type they owned. Those types were considered part of the first general group. To get a separate listing a type had to make the special list. Certainly we all might have opinions and disagree on where he drew the line between mutts and purebreds but his way was really the only way to cover the material in a book less than ten feet thick. People who had the experience to understand the book may not have needed it and people who needed it still believed that the Red Book or Spink catalog was better. My recommendation would be to buy/read the books on coin that do not deal with values and do your value research online remembering that there have been coins that sold for half or double what the same specimen brought 20 years earlier. David Vagi listed ranges like $3000 to $5000 which was only for VF coins of one type. All Nero sestertii in all grades were listed from $50 to $15,000. You are expected to figure out which coins it in which category. We get the book question here regularly but the answer will never change. Any book that did what new collectors want would be beyond impossible to write and so expensive no one would buy it. Few of us here on Coin Talk have seen 1% of all types of ancient coins. Our most expert members may go for a period of weeks without seeing something new but most of us learn something every day. We are not able to hold all our experience in head so we have resources that we check when needed. That includes libraries (we have members with over a thousand books or other bound references) and the constantly growing online materials. Not all answers to all questions will come immediately if at all. Questions supported by FULL information, good photos of both sides and careful wording so we know what is being asked have a much better chance of being answered or even taken seriously by someone who might be able to help with a suggestion on where you might look to have a chance of a good answer. I am sure the 'best' book question is one that will never be answered fully.
I think you are looking for Roman Base Metal Coins - A Price Guide by Richard Plant. Costs $10. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Roman Base Metal Coins - A Price Guide
