Just a quick note that Kolbe and Fanning has a new auction closing 9/15. As always an extensive selection, but this sale seems to have a better selection of Standard references. They have Crawford Roman Republican, RIC, RPC, BMC, etc. They even have a lot of rare titles I have been looking for, which is fairly unusual as they are scarce. I am counting on everyone not to be bidding on those of course. Chris P.S. I was going to post a link, but wasn't sure it was allowed. I have no relationship with the dealer, other than being a customer.
...and now for a word from the other side (devil's advocate). Chris, as a collector of long standing is right to be interested in such a sale but I would warn that well over half of the items that turn up in numismatic book sales are simply not worth the money unless you are a book collector above and beyond a coin collector. There are some that are outdated and some that are just plain wrong. For example, I bought the Philip Hill book on Septimius Severus when I first became interested in his coins and wonder where he got some of his detailed information that seemed to me to be unrelated to the other works and the coins I have seen. Other books sell for high prices but have been replaced for practical use by other works. Owning these is fun and interesting as long as you are advanced enough to realize that not everything you read in a hardcover book is Gospel truth. Certainly there is information in some not otherwise available and pictures of some rare coins that last sold over 100 years ago but we each have to ask how many books of this category we really need. I have a personal problem. I'd like to sell my copy of Hill and a few dozen other books that I don't see myself reading in what time I have left but I could not, with straight face, offer them to someone without a note that I'm selling these because I consider them worth less than the going price. It seems better to hold on to the lot and let my grandson deal with it at the same time he is trying to unload the coins.
I understand your post Doug, I also know that you have posted many times that you feel money is better spent on coins than numismatic books. I simply need some scarce volumes on some research I am doing on Hepthalites, and some rare volumes quoted in references are listed in the auction. However, you and I disagree on how much a good standard reference is needed. I find myself getting most of my education for ancients not by the internet but by books. The internet is built on quicksand, and a large amount of attributions I see online, (except for CNG and the like), are erroneous. To me, a good reference library is invaluable in understanding and researching your collection. How else do you find out WHY an author is attributing a coin to a certain location, see the exact coins that others are referencing as an attribution. Do you advise just blindly copying an attribution a seller lists on a coin, or pulling out RIC and cross checking the reference and ensuring that it is the correct mint, date, or even Emperor? While I admit I have more books than I probably need, I frequently pull one out just to read and learn. The problem with the internet is that anyone can post whatever they feel like, without any peer review. I have seen common coins like Indo-Sassanid issues described as anything from Hepthalite to Sassanin to Indian to Kushan, with dates from 4th century to 12th century. Having some good standard reference volumes I think is almost necessary if you want to move beyond believing everything the seller says is true. Sure, references get dated, and new information appears, but those same coins are still referenced, the volume is still relevant if only for their documentation of known examples. This is very important when a hoard of new coins come out, like the Black Sea hoard, to compare against known examples and determine if they are real or not. Sorry, but if someone wishes to collect a certain series of coins, I still say its imperative to get the standard refernce for it to get the most out of his coins. If you collect Parthian, you should own Sellwood, if you collect Constantius II you should own RIC VIII. Anything else and you are simply trusting that all information out there that you rely on and you based your collection on is 100% accurate on the sellers tags. Would you pay extra money for what the seller claims is a rare Parthian issue without owning Sellwood to check the attribution yourself? I wouldn't. BTW Doug I am not including your website when I talk about quicksand, but you have to admit some coin website are not that they could be. Chris
I don't think we disagree on this as much as you think. The point as I see it is that beginners as represented by most posters here on Coin Talk need to be careful buying rare books at auction without knowing why they would want those books. I agree Sellwood is a good book in many respects although for many uses I prefer Shore which is a lot more recent and has photos. What I am unclear on is when I would suggest buying these two books. Before you get one Parthian coin? No. At 10 coins? Maybe. At 100? Certainly. Wait until after the sale and tell us what Hephthalite reference was of interest. I wonder how many here on CT own one Hephthalite coin?
medoraman, thank you so much for your post! That's an awesome auction. I wasn't aware of that site. Although I have bought from them on eBay. I found a few references in their auction I've been looking for. One of them I've been searching for for 3 years. Now I just have to win them. :evilGrin: BTW, I'm not bidding on any Hephthalite books. :smile I see the same thing. And I have made some great cherry picks of mis-attributed coins because the sellers obviously didn't have the pertinent references. Or at least didn't study them. It sounds like your book shelves are bowed also. I just like learning about coins and the history associated with them. I even have books on coins that I have not yet collected but find interesting. I also will pull down a book, sometimes on a random whim, and just read and study. In fact, if I had to choose between my numismatic/history books and my coins I would be hard pressed to choose which I would give up.
Just to clarify, Numislit on Ebay and Vcoins is Charles Davis, a very nice dealer I also buy from. Numislit on the web is Kolbe and Fanning, also great dealers. Both are top shelf numismatic literature dealers, its just Kolbe and Fanning have the large auctions. Btw I just pulled the Hepthalite references out since I am tryign to put together a presentation for my ancient coin club. I am trying to make it more than a presentation, though, and have it borderline a reference book itself. My plans are to get the copyright permissions for photos, and have it referenced to all of the major sources, and maybe have it linked on the web for anyone interested to download. I am not a professional, and it would not be original research, but I am hoping it would be helpful for an introduction to both the history and the coins of these mysterious people. Today, beside Tom Mallon's great website, any information about them is either in expensive and rare coin books, in German, or in Russian.
I would give up the coins. I love my coins, but I simply love knowledge more. Without the history and coin reference books all the coins are little lumps of metal. Attractive, yes, but not as fascinating. Luckily for me my father made me a set of book shelves made out of 3/4 inch oak shelves. It takes that, and lots of supports, to handle the weight I am afraid. Maybe I am different than many here. I think I use coins to force myself to learn. I see a coin, maybe know a little about it, yet once I buy it I want to read and know all there is about the issue. This is why I like having the references. I can see examples in major collections, read the references about it, read different authors opinions of them, etc. Even if I do not buy a new coin, sitting down and reading a Michael Michiner title, or reviewing Nabatean Coins, or simply paging through Hoberman's excellent photography book relaxes me, and I learn more. It was from me paging through "Byzantine Coins" that I recognized my Ostrogothic coin when I first saw it. This is what I am somewhat hoping to create for Hepthalite coins. There is no single publication for these coins, somewhere to learn what little history we know, who they were, where and when they lived, and the coins associated with them. I have a few books in Russian, a few pages from some history books, a PhD dissertation from Berlin, and hopefully some references from the upcoming auction to try to piece together some semblance of a booklet. I am simply trying to put together what I would have liked to have when I first got interested in these.
