My First Physical Ancient Coin Book!

I was perusing the internet last night as I am prone do doing when I came across a book on Byzantine coinage called "Byzantine Coins" by P.D. Whitting. Everything I read on it made it sound like a pretty solid book so I jumped on ebay and did a search.



Imagine my surprise when I found one for sale whose auction was closing in 2 hours and had zero bids. Not only that, it was just down the road from me in Annapolis, MD! I popped my $24.95 bid on it and went to bed.

I was happy to see that I won it in the morning and I promptly paid. Then I received a message from the seller saying that he was going to be in my town this afternoon and could drop it off. Why the heck not?!

He didn't specify a time he would drop it off and I happened to be out getting dinner when he stopped by. I would've liked to thank him in person.

Not only did he drop the book off, but he added a National Geographic magazine from 1983 (before I was born) with an article about Byzantium. It has a beautiful fold out map of the Byzantine empire.


I am looking forward to reading through this and adding to my knowledge of Byzantine coinage. There are tons of illustrations and color pictures to ogle. Online resources have been wonderful but there is definitely something about holding a book in your hands.



Let's see your favorite physical resources or share some online ones that you particularly like. Of course, feel free to post some of those beautiful ugly Byzantines!

Oh, and I will add a coin as well. It was listed as "unidentified byzantine coin".

I was able to do some research and find that it was:


Michael II and Theophilus
AE Follis
820-829 AD
Syracuse
Obverse: mIXAHL S ThOE, Michael, wearing crown and chlamys with short beard on the left and Theophilus, wearing crown and loros, no beard, on the right, busts facing
Reverse: Large M, cross above, theta below

 

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Very nice, Nat Geographic had some spectacular maps

 

Wow, what a nice guy from the sound of it

 

I love Nat Geo maps.

 

That is an excellent and entertaining book. Here is my review from this page on Byzantine-coin reference works:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/Byzantine.html

"Whitting, P. D. Byzantine Coins. 1973. In the "World of Numismatics" series. Hardcover. 311 pages. Beautifully printed. 457 enlarged photographs of sides of coins within (usually both sides in two photos, but sometimes only one side, and many in color). Much scholarly information, but directed toward people with a deep interest but not a lot of previous knowledge. Very entertaining and informative. You will learn what makes Byzantine coins interesting. A fun read. Highly recommended.
This is an excellent book on Byzantine coins, This would be my top or second-favorite book (Grierson is the other) for general knowledge about Byzantine coins. It is more lively and entertaining than Grierson and the enlarged photos are more fun to look at, but the text is less systematic and thorough. I love this book and would recommend it right after Sear as a book for collectors. I think he wrote this book because he loved how interesting Byzantine coins are and it shows. As I write Amazon has one "like new" for $35 plus shipping and at that price it is an excellent deal. Buy it!"

 

Me too! My grandparents gave me a Nat Geo subscription as a kid and my favorite part were the maps. The walls in my room were covered in them.

 

I'm glad you gave it a glowing review. I trust your recommendation! I've just been leafing through the pictures so far. Gotta wait until the kids go to bed to get some peace and quiet

 

Bruck and Plant have both been recently reprinted. New copies are inexpensive. I find them both useful and entertaining.

 

A guide to poorly preserved coins. That seems to be right about my speed
I know absolutely nothing about arabic coins but I have seen some absolutely beautiful silver coins.

 

The nice thing about both books is that they have line drawings, almost cartoons really, that guide you though what is on the coin.

 

Congratulations. Sounds like you found an exceptionally friendly seller!

As for reference books: I'm struggling there. I started collecting less than two years ago. As a consequence, my 'collection' is rather small ( but growing enthusiastically!) and eclectic.
Buying a specific reference book based on having 3 or 4 coins of a specific region or empire is a poor investment, I think.
For now, I make do with the 'Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage'. (Not really a reference book, more a good introduction. It's a collection of good articles, written by various authors, spanning many centuries and empires. But well written and highly informative).
My only 'specialized' reference book is from the CNG series; 'Handbook of Coins of Sicily'.(Who doesn't like a good coin from Sicily? I do! )
Also, I try to read a lot of books on ancient history.
Other than that I use all the online resources I can get my hands on. Worth mentioning is Academia.org; many interesting, if sometimes somewhat academic, papers there ( it's called Academia, after all...).

I'm considering getting Sears, the Greek version; it comes highly acclaimed. (Although, from reading the scarce reviews of it, I can't quite make out if it is the perfect reference book for me. I'm not looking for an enumeration of the SNG catalog-numbers with pictures. I'm primarily interested in a book that sheds light on the background and the history of types and coins. Not 100% sure if Sears fits that bill. If there's anyone reading this that can enlighten me and tell me if it is the way to go..., you're more than welcome!)

 

Who is the author of that one? Bruck?

 

Guido Bruck, the Austrian numismatist. Here is the book on Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Late-Roman-Bronze-Coinage-attribution/dp/1502926016

 

Wonderful book! So excited for you!

Related, the Fall of Civilizations podcast creator has been turning his audio podcasts into videos. He just finished his 2 part-er (roughly 3 total hours long) on the fall of Byzantium - Last of the Romans last week. His content is just wonderful.

 

Awesome! I am currently up-to-date with the "History of Byzantium" podcast and am now working through the "History of Ancient Greece". I haven't done "Fall of Civilizations" but I will add it to the list.

 

My youngest just crawled up into my lap and pointed to the book on the back of the couch and said "book" so we opened it up to a random page and started enjoying the pictures.

 

A tandem of physical book and online resource has helped me understand the Judaean revolt around 70 AD, the Flavians, the layout of Jerusalem, the tactics of the seige, etc.

The physical book I have is Revolt in Judea: The Road to Masada. It has photos of what I can only assume are miniaturized models of Jerusalem and discusses the situation by Josephus.


And there is a SUPERB video on YouTube by Invicta on the subject that goes through similar info and even more detail and much more engaging expository.

 

@furryfrog02, and all the rest of you, Massive thanks for generally lighting up the synapses, from one end of the switchboard to the other!
...I took a look for Arabic Coins and How to Read Them on amazon, and available copies were already scary, regarding the price.
...No, with particular reference to @Ignoramus Maximus' post, as a Medievals guy, I'm already Way too deep in the weeds with Islamic coins Not to be able to read them. That's,
Thank you, As in, At All.
Likely to be looking for that one again, maybe somewhere better than Amazon. (Next time....)

 

Whitting is a favorite of mine, too, as is Bruck. Neither is a catalog of types but a book to help the reader understand the coins and appreciate why they are collectable. Bruck is based on the realization that there are a thousand late Roman coins that are part legend or in less than perfect condition but that there is a lot to be told about them even if they are missing things like the mintmarks.

Whitting is joined in the "World of Numismatics" series by volumes on Greek and Roman coins by Jenkins and Sutherland respectively. I enjoyed them all and both the photos and text are worth study. These books all suggest the slightly out of date theory that ancients coins are to be appreciated for more than their profit potential. There are several other 'coffee table' style books but most strike me as more efforts to sell books than to spread the love of the subjects as do the "World of Numismatics" series. I doubt there will be many more works of this type now that we live in the age of electrons. Even though many were written before some of us were born, there is a lot of worthwhile meat on those old bones.