We recently had a very useful thread on references for Roman coins ( https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ric-a-publication-history.286278/ ). As a beginner in the ancient world, I'm very much interested in buying the books before the coins. I want to educate myself, and whatever I eventually choose to collect I will need a good reference for it. So, as a companion to the Roman coin reference thread, what references do y'all use for Greek coins? Is there a single series of books that you find to be comprehensive, or do you use specialist guides for different city-states? If I were only to buy a couple of volumes as a beginner reference, what would you recommend?
Oooh, that's a tough one. If you want books which serve as catalog references you'll have to buy tons of books even if limiting yourself to one area. SNG Copenhagen is a massive series, but there are other SNG issuers. The full set of SNG Copenhagen books alone is massive and expensive. Here's a breakdown of its contents by region: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=sng copenhagen
As Tiff points out, this is a difficult question to answer. It really depends on what your goal is with the book(s). Attribution guide? General catalog? Background information? There are too many to suggest without knowing.
Let's start with "general survey" and "background information." Depending on what I decide to collect, the attribution guide will come later.
I think the best bang for your buck would be David Sear's Greek Coins and Their Values, in two volumes (about $50 each new, much less used). That will cover all the basics, has good photos, an overview of types, history, etc. Any new collector should own them (any advanced collector should still have them as well).
I agree with the recommendation of Sear GCV as a good general overview. It lists a lot of the more common types, and it can be useful for attribution if you don't have a large number of Greek coins or aren't collecting the more obscure types. Once you start to focus, you will need to use more specialized works.
@physics-fan3.14 : This is exactly the set I use. Seaby / Sear does a great job with a good general reference. I do have several Greeks that are not exactly what he lists; but it covers the Greeks pretty well. I focus on Carthage, Makedon, Sicily; and he does a good general coverage.
Perhaps Wayne G Sayles book would suit this need. I used to believe "buy the book then the coin" but I've found this approach impractical.
For less high level overview "reading" on Greek coins, I'd recommend Jenkins "Greek Coins" or Kraay "Archaic and Classical Greek Coins". For general catalogue reference, the Sear volumes are useful. SNG Copenhagen is frequently cited because it's a collection of tremendous breadth, but it's an expensive set that offers little but photos, weights and basic descriptions - fine for a more advanced collector, but not much value for a beginner.
There is a significant distinction between references for identification and dating (gotta have that ID number!) and references for overview and understanding. I am writing about the latter. John Anthony's "Collecting Greek Coins" is a well-illustrated (but only life-size in B&W) overview with lots of discussion but it does not serve to ID coins. It is inexpensive. "Ancient Greek Coins" by G. K. Jenkins (the first, Putnam, edition is better than the second!) has beautiful overview with 695 enlarged photographs, many in color, covering the entire "Greek" world. The second (Seaby) edition is inexplicably much smaller and inferior. "Coinage in the Greek World", by Ian Carradice and Martin Price (1998), is an excellent work, very well suited to beginners and advanced collectors alike. Written by two top scholars, it is completely authoritative. Nevertheless, it is completely user-friendly. It is not a "How to collect" guide, but a chronologically organized well-illustrated discussion of ancient Greek coins. This is an outstandingly good book. If you are thinking of collecting Greek coins, buy this book. It is easy to start with, but, no matter how far you advance, you will never outgrow it. Here is a page on ancient-coin reference works: http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html I also recommend Kraay "Archaic and Classical Greek Coins" and Morkholm, "early Hellenistic Coinage" as scholarly works on their time periods, but they are not books for beginners.
While I agree with the books suggested and would promote Sear to the top, we just have to live with the fact that there are a million types and no book will ever be written that is at all comprehensive. Sear did a pretty good job selecting the coins seen most often or that are representative of the city/period they represent. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that you have something special because your coin is a bit (or a lot) different from the Sear coin. That is even more true with his Provincial (Greek Imperial) book where he settles for one coin of a city per ruler in most cases even though some of them might have a thousand variations. The same variety count that makes ancients interesting make it just plain impossible to have a 'Red Book' for ancients.
Greeks are tough, and much harder for books. The reason why is that Greeks issued way more types than Romans. It really matters WHICH greeks you want to collect in order to have any kind of recommendations.
Well, I just bought both volumes of Sear's Greek Coins and their Values, so I'll give them a read. I also picked up Sear's Greek Imperial Coins and Volumes I and II of Roman Coins and their Values. That should get me through the winter, I think.
Just an opinion: These are great books for what they are but they are not 'readers'. Most people use them for reference reading just a few listings trying to find a match and ID for their coins. For reading, cover to cover, try John Anthony's "Collecting Greek Coins".
