what reference book on ancient coins is most used by you ?

A lot of options here...
To ID sestertii I still prefer the 9 volume Banti -Grandi Bronzi Imperiali- (all sesterces and medaillons descibed and pictured)
For extra info I use the RIC's and ... (Ras will love to hear this) the ERIC II
Denarii : the Sear Silver Coins (5 volumes)
On a coin fair : the classic one volume Sear 'Roman Coins & their Values)
But overall : my personal fav is the 130yo Cohen !
And I got my 4000+ library of auction catalogues

 

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oh, I forgot my BMC's... And a lot of books on provincial coins...

 

http://www.cngcoins.com/Bibliography.aspx

Most used for my own collection?

Dattari, G. 1999. CatalogocompletodellacollezioneDattariNumiAugg.Alexandrini. Ed. Adriano Savio.Trieste.
Geissen, A. 1983. KatalogalexandrinischerKaisermünzen,Köln-Vol.5. Cologne.
Milne, J.G. 1927. CatalogueofAlexandrianCoinsintheAshmoleanMuseum. 1971 ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gülbay,Onur,andHasanKireç.2008.EphesianLeadTesserae.Selçuk-Efes:SelçukBelediyesi.
Overbeck,Mechtild. 1995. RömischeBleimarken. Munich:Staatlichen Münzsammlung München.
___. 2001.RömischeBleimarken. Milan: Comune di milano.
Rostowzew,Mikhail. 1903. Tesserarum Urbis Romae et Suburbi PlumbearumSylloge. St. Petersburg.
Rostovtzev,Mikhail, and Maurice Prou. 1900. CataloguedesPlombsduMoyenAgeetDesTempsModernes.Paris: Bibliothéque Nationale.
Turcan, Robert.1987. NigraMoneta. Lyon: Diffusion de Boccard.

 

Nice selection !

 

I prefer BMC where it exists but, after that series stops, I go to RIC. Cohen is the easiest to use if all you want is a number minus information other than it exists. I only have one volume of Banti which is appropriate considering how few sestertii I own. That leaves the auction catalogs which really do a great job with the coins they cover. The only problem is finding what you want to see. The online versions like acsearch really help in this respect but my paper catalogs go back a couple decades farther than what has been uploaded so far. Eventually, I believe these online versions of sales catalogs will become complete enough that they will replace all those boxes of catalogs but now they just point out that there is no single reference that makes you forget all the others.

Today, if I were to imagine a book that I would most like to see, it would be an RIC/RPC/BMC type listing online or on paper with complete indexed (or clickable) high quality illustrations. I'd rather see it done online accessible through a tablet with split screen that shows the images on one side and text on the other that stay together as you scroll through just like currently exists on Bible apps that display either two translations or a text and a Bible commentary all the time allowing you to do a search for keywords or just to scroll through looking for something that catches you eye. Numismatic eBooks like this won't exist in my lifetime or yours and certainly not while there are so few people who know both coins and computers and would be willing to pay the ridiculous cost of developing them. There are millions of people interested in Bible study materials but somewhere between dozens and hundreds who care about our old hunks of scrap metal. It is no wonder that the average book mentioned here is 50 to 100 years old. It will take at least that long to produce the next generation of ancient coin books.

 

I remember, years ago, I went tru your website (very useful btw) to find extra information... but despite the effords nowadays to create search engines and coin databases, I still prefer old paper...

 

I have all of Sears books & Aorta, about it. Everything else has been done online. Would love to see books Doug & Chris have. Why couldnt we all live close

 

ERIC and whatever I can find online concerning Nabataean coins. You can't get Meshorer at any price.

 

bookzzz...

 

Whoa. Is that your collection of numismatic references?

 

Jeez... Did someone take a picture of my yearly reading pile (for 2012, where I didn't read as much as I was reading on forums a lot)?

 

hahahaha no ! but i got a 4000+ library... all major reference books + loads n loads of auction catalogs...

 

meshorer ? i bought mine on www.abebooks.com

 

My Ancient Coin Library is Three Books and a pair of Auction Catalogs...

None of which I can use to ID what I have

I have to use online to find everything, even though I would rather use a book (I'm that weird YN who loves books more than the internet...)

Jealous doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.

 

ERIC-II
Collecting Greek Coins - Anthony
Handbook of Coins of Sicily - Oliver Hoover (CNG)
Ancient Greek and Roman Coins - Zander Klawans
Greek Coins and their Values (Volume I Europe) - David Sear
Greek Coins and their Values (Volume II Asia & Africa) - David Sear
Greek Imperial Coins and their values - David Sear
Roman Coins and their Values I - David Sear
Roman Coins and their Values II - David Sear
Roman Coins and their Values III - David Sear
Roman Coins and their Values IV - David Sear
The Twelve Caesars - Michael Grant

... ummm?? ... and probably more in the mail

 

Thanks for the link but, nope. Out of stock - just like everybody else.

 

if u want, i can ask some book friends... note : shipping to the US can be expensive... maybe i can find a digital version.

 

I use google far more than any book i have

 

I use many reference works, but this question was about the ones we use most. So, first is perhaps Sear "Roman Coins and Their Values" Volume I, which is nearly complete for Roman Republican. Then Sear's "Byzantine Coins and Their Values," which is very close to complete for Byzantine coins. Then Sear's "Greek Coins and Their Values," which is nowhere near complete for Greek coins, but gets the ball rolling. I follow up with Crawford from Republican, both RIC and BMC for Roman, BMC Greek and SNG Danish for Greek, and Dumbarton Oaks and Grierson for Byzantine.

I recommend Sear's "Roman Coins and Their Values" 4th edition for getting started. It is compact and still useful.
I could cite a dozen other titles I have used this weekend alone, but this thread was not about depth. The internet is great and will get you rather far on almost any coin topic, but real depth (and depth is a lot of fun) still resides in books.

I recommend some reference books on this page:
http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html
I list some catalog references by theme on this page:
http://esty.ancients.info/catalogs/Themes.html
That is still a work in progress, but gives you some idea of the resources a specialist would want.

 

For hardcover book I use "The Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins" by Van Meter.
Online referance I like the Aelia site very much. :hatch: