This large format, lavishly illustrated book recounts the Old and New Testaments, placing them in their historical contexts, and supporting the histories with numismatics and other illustrations. The running narrative is authoritative and non-controversial, supplying the latest scholarly research in archaeology. Kenneth Bressett served as president of the ANA 1995-1997. He wrote or co-authored 13 other books. Among them are The Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins), which he continues from Richard S. Yeoman; and The Fantastic 1804 Dollar which he wrote with former ANS president Eric P. Newman. Money of the Bible, 3rd Edition by Kenneth Bressett. Atlanta: Whitman Publishing LLC. 120 pages. 10 x 12 inches. Hardcover with dustjacket. $29.95
I dropped my membership in ANA around 1970 because it was obvious then that ancient coins were not of interest to the group, in particular the Numismatist staff. Now I see a past president writing a book on ancients. That brings up the question of just what part of the ANA and its magazine would be of interest to a collector of ancients. Is anyone a member?
I'd be interested in reading that book if I could borrow it. I strongly suspect that it's little more than a primer, and most of the information it contains could easily be obtained on the internet for free. Is that judging a book by its cover or what? But speaking of the ANA, I've recently had some interesting conversations with an author whose article on Himyarite coinage will appear soon in the Numismatist. So, maybe there's some hope that the ANA is branching out a bit?
I'm a member Doug, and they have a fantastic (IMHO) column on ancients. Also, current governor Scott Rottinghaus is an avid ancient collector.
Well, of course, I am a member. And I have an interest in ancients. They have a regular Ancients column and a Medieval column that rotate, so it's like four times a year for each. If you have have not been involved in over 40 years, you need to get reacquainted. It is not like being a member of ANS -- which in 2000 went through painful readjustments exactly because of the criticism that it was the Ancient Numismatic Society. They refocussed on US, and they pushed heavily into colonials and Early American Copper. They still maintain their support for ancients, of course.
Well, it is easy to know more than someone else, and even more than everyone else... I found the book an enjoyable read. Did I "know" most of it? No. Was any of it shocking or surprising? No. It is a good book to give someone else. But I am happy to have it on my shelf. You only want information for free, but you expect to pay for coins, and more to the point, expect that other people will eventually pay you even more for your coins. What would you say to someone who questioned paying a dollar for a dime or any money at all for a Roman denarius that cannot be spent. Yes, I suppose that the information in this book is free all over the Internet. Heck, the secrets of the CIA and NSA are free all over the Internet. However, here, the information is collected, organized, and surrounded by beautiful illustrations. This book might make a nice holiday present for a youngster.
I'm sure it's a lovely book, Michael. And I'm sure it will fill a large niche - a lot of collectors only want a general overview of the coins they collect. I'm only one man speaking for myself. I've spent a good chunk of change on numismatic volumes, but for me, they need to be seriously in-depth catalogs and/or studies, like RIC or Lindgren, or volumes of SNG. But I wish Mr. Bressett all the success in the world with his publications.
Clearly, John, this is not a book to be used to authenticate or attribute a coin. It might be more for someone whose interests are Biblical rather than numismatical, but for the fact that Bressett takes a secular approach to the Revealed Word of God. For the active numismatist, David Hendin's Guide to Biblical Coins would be the book to work with. As I suggested above, if you have young relatives with some interest or potential interest in numismatics, perhaps through US coins, this could be a nice present. That said, thinking of my own interests at 10 or 12 - dinosaurs, astronomy, microscope - I am not sure that I would have looked through this more than a few times. It's hard to say... My family actually sent us to a summer Bible school for three years in a row, but all it taught me was the relativity of religious experience. Many years later, I gave a "Coins of the Bible" talk with show-and-tell items to a local church group and my wife and I attended services there for a month or so. We never went to church before, and had been married in her parents' living room -- by a coin dealer, as it turned out... But that's another story.
Well, now you've piqued my curiosity and I'll probably end up getting the book after all. If Bressett is writing from a secular standpoint, I wonder if he's bold enough to point out that there is no archeological record of coins in the Holy Land before the end of the 6th century BC - which means that references in the Old Testament to specific coins during the First Temple Period are an anachronism. The author of Chronicles, writing during the Persian Period, assumed darics existed long before they actually did. And that's just one problem when it comes to comparing the archeological record with the Biblical. I have no problem with it, because my sense of religiosity doesn't insist on a literal interpretation of scripture, but it might be a thorny issue for fundamentalists. If you're writing for as broad an audience as possible, I imagine it would take some deft side-stepping to avoid alienating anyone. I'm curious to see how he does it.
I would contend that if a collector owned only one book on biblical coinage, I would say it would have to be Hendin. Second isdebatable, based upon the purpose of the collector. This might be a fine second volume for someone wanting more readable stories than coin information. For a more serious student, I would recommend Meshorer. Most coin books have a place, but this book is not THE book for the subject.
John: "The occasional use of coin-like terms that have been used in some early Bible quotations are always those of translators attempting to relate unfamiliar expressions with words that might be familiar to contemporary readers." Bressett, page 24. He is quite clear in his knowledge of numismatics, otherwise he would not have been elected president of the ANA or been allowed to work with Eric Newman on a book about the 1804 Dollar. Medoraman: <whack> <whack> <whack> (The sound of a dead horse being flogged. ) Meshorer has not written much lately. I don't know if I would say that Hendin is the Talmud to Meshorer's Torah - or maybe I just did - but it is like the BMC, you know, sort of frozen in time with what was known then. So, if you are that interested, yes, you have Meshorer as a baseline and amend it with the latest Hendin, while in the mean time, participating in the publications of current research. But that is not what this book is, was ever intended to be, is being sold as, or was reviewed as. I went through a "Biblical coins" phase when I was collecting ancients. But I gave them all to my sister and her family because they are Christians and I am not. Right now on my desk, I have god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. But my values are not everyone's, nor do they need to be. So, I review books that other people might find interesting. It is what a professional writer does, just like any other dealer.
I understand, just clarifying for others who might read your post and think this might be the ONE book on the subject for an ancient collector. I simply find the book fine for a casual collector, or a Christian mildly interested in coin collecting, but not the first book an ancient coin collector should own on the subject. LIke you said, Meshorer is not updating his publications, so I would say Hendin would be the one book I would own on ancient Jewish coins, (effectively "coins of the bible"), if I only owned one. Since there are very few ancient numismatic subjects that I own only one book on though, its not much of an issue for me.
I agree 100% on that. Even in the American mainstream, if you look at the Bibliography in the back of a recent Red Book, most of the areas have more than one. (In older Red Books, the bibliographies were within each section.) Also, on that note, I see that the only book under Patterns is the QDB update of Hewitt Judd now published by Whitman. Myself, I have that, but also Pollack and Adams. And I never bought any patterns. But you have to know the patterns to know US numismatics.
Kenneth Bressett is no stranger to ancient numismatics. His interest in ancients coincided with his interest in US coinage since at least the early 50s. Because of conflicts of interest, he stopped trading US coins some time ago. He continues to collect and study ancients, however. Dave Vagi and Celator's Kerry Wetterstrom have done a combo-course at least every other year at the summer ANA for years on a wide variety of courses on ancient coinage. Scott Rottinghaus frequently teaches courses about Roman republican coinage at the summer ANA meeting. As mentioned, the ANA magazine regularly produces interesting articles about ancients. I think the ANA does succeed in stimulating interest in young numismatists for ancients (and other specialties of numismatics, of course). Without the younger numismatists, collecting coins (including ancients) could go the way of collecting beanie babies. guy
Thank you for the ANA information. Imagine my surprise when I visited the ANA website page http://www.money.org/media/7345/RomanCoinResearch.pdf and discovered that they linked to three of my web pages in their section of Roman coins. Unfortunately they used the old, now dead, addresses before my site moved from ancients.info to forvmancientcoins space. While I have no objections to anyone using or linking to my pages, I can not notify of changes when I have not been told of the usage.
My bedside manner is not the best, so I will just tell you the bad news: The webmaster they hired probably is pretty good at being a webmaster and probably does not swim in the deep waters of Roman numismatics, so that person might not have identified you as especially special. If you take the initiative to introduce yourself, you might be happier. In fact, that is one of the metrics of the Myers and Briggs Personality Type Indicator: at a party where they are a guest, extroverts introduce themselves to others while introverts hide in the corner, looking at coins with a magnifier. Just sayin'... Hi! My name is Mike! Have you ever seen a Roman coin?! Can I bring you a drink?! How about them Redsox!!"
Man, I used to teach and administer the Myers Briggs. Interesting stuff when analyzing others with whom you intend contact.
The Numismatist does have some interesting articles on ancients. Great magazine in general! Medals, Tokens, US, Foreign, Tokens, Patterns, Paper, ...and more! I learn something new every publication just by thumbing through
