New to the field of ancients? Stuck on terminology? Can't recall the difference between "fabric" and "module?" I just ran across an educational page from the ANS that I think is worthy of a bookmark. http://numismatics.org/seminar/termsmethods/ You might find it useful to give it a look. Warning though: this page has NO pictures. You have to read it.
The ANS has an 8-week summer seminar for graduate students. The idea is to take people smart and skilled enough to be in a PhD program in History, Art History, or Archeology (and now also Data Science !) and teach them enough about coins to make use of them in an academic career. I also encourage anyone looking to become more skilled in numismatics to look at the reading list suggested for these students: http://numismatics.org/seminar/readings/
Hmmmm. Thanks for the reading lists, Ed. I took a quick look at the one for a general intro to Roman imperial, and must confess that they got a little sloppy. Five of the entries for Intros and Surveys were missing the first letter of the names of the authors. P. C. Kent, B. Overbeck, and A. U. Stylow, Die römische Münze (Munich, 1973). H. V. Sutherland, Roman Coins (London and New York, 1974). P. C. Kent, Roman Coins (London and New York, 1978). English version, with different text and slightly different illustrations, of Kent/Overbeck/Stylow. M. Burnett, Coinage in the Roman World (London, 1987). The most up-to-date and sensible of the lot, but unfortunately without bibliography of any kind. A. G. Carson, Coins of the Roman Empire (London, 1990). A chronological account combined with good chapters on technical questions. JPC Kent, CHV Sutherland, AM Burnett, and RAG Carson. (Not that we're on a first name basis.) Usable, but a bit careless. Still, I remember looking into the summer seminar when I was doing grad work. Couldn't justify leaving my wife alone with two boys (one of whom is autistic) for another summer back then, when I had abandoned them for 8 weeks digging in Israel not long before. She was the breadwinner, doing child care to pay the rent.
For Mat and others who prefer piktur larnin to buuk larnin, I offer my 8 illustrated Vocabulary pages covering words I felt useful for the collector of ancient coins. I'm sure I would have enjoyed attending something like the ANS program if they had it when I was graduated back in 1968 but it made no matter since the Draft Board had a different suggestion for boys just out of college that year. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/voc.html Not surprisingly, several of the words I chose also appear in the ANS list. I do believe, however it may be obtained, that a working knowledge of these words is most important to those beginning a study of ancient coins.
