Can anybody recommend resource books for ancient coins? Something for identification or maybe Ancient Coins For Dummies if they make one?
The series by Wayne Sayles. It won't teach you identification, per se, but it will teach you the general principles of the hobby.
For identification there are posters sold on ebay of Roman emporers portraits. Many of the best catalogs are either out of print or very expensive. These two posters are less than $30. good luck.
I have the Sayles books. Of them, Vol. 3 on Roman coins might be of particular help to you. I must admit that I am less enthusiastic about the Sayles series than others are. With Sayles Vol. 3, I found the opening 40 pages or so most helpful as a novice since they reviewed coin denominations, reference works, etc. Much of the book consists of Wikipedia-style summaries of the lives of the emperors; personally, I could have looked that info up on Wiki; I would have preferred more coin-specific pages. But I will admit it is nice to have all that emperor info together. The book concludes with a discussion of some numismatic themes and "masterpieces." As a beginner, I found myself using Dave Van Meter's Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins: A Complete Guide to the History, Types and Values of Roman Imperial Coinage much more than Sayles, but I was identifying uncleaned coins, so my needs might have been different from the general information seeker. Van Meter is getting hard to find, though there are copies on eBay. BTW, Van Meter offers some value or rarity estimates that are somewhat outdated and best ignored. Others might recommend the books by David Sear. But Van Meter was my novice book of choice. As always, your mileage may vary.
Van Meter was chastised when it came out as it contained many errors. Many thought it was published as a replacement to Sear (maybe that was the intent, I dont know) and when it fell short of that I think people were disappointed. Nevertheless it was a really great single volume book for the beginner. It was about $20 when released (I bought and sold hundreds of them). I dont know where to find one now, but it is worthy for the beginner.
Although a little more expensive and not a single volume, I would suggest "Roman Coins and Their Values" by David R. Sear. The complete five volume set can be found for around $200-250 and will cover most coins that the beginning to intermediate collect will encounter. Sear's numbering system is commonly used and the books contain a wealth of background on the coins as well as historical information on each person appearing on a coin. Cross references to RIC, BMC, Cohen and others are also given and there is extensive coverage of the Republican series as well. I honestly believe that a Roman collector could use no other books and enjoy a lifetime of collecting. Not to be too critical, but the Van Meter numbering system is cumbersome and never caught on, he gives codes for the value ranges of coins rather than specific values (which is not a bad idea, but it adds an extra layer of confusion to using the book.
Thanks for the info guys. I'm use to using the Standard Catalog for world coins. As I think about venturing into ancients I can't find that one-stop basic resource to lean on as I get started.
I believe this is a reflection of the fact that the subject simply does not lend itself to a one-stop basic resource. There are several people I believe would be qualified to write a 'Ancient Coins for Dummies' but most of them are smart enough to know they would be setting themselves up for failure as unable to satisfy the demand for a thousand pages of wisdom in a $25 single volume paperback. I believe the last thing a beginner needs to learn is how to identify ancient coins. I do believe that beginners need to learn 'about' the coins but should be buying their coins identified from sellers that specialize in holding the hands of new collectors. That means they don't need to buy uncleaned coins or great rarities, two areas where exact ID seem more significant. They don't need to participate in every glossy catalog auction or have a goal of owning 200 different coin issuing authorities in the first 200 days. When I was a kid and collected US coins, I had a 'type' collection where I went out of my way to have a representative example of coin types with preference shown to common dates which served the purpose as well as would a super rarity. Today, we see people entering ancients intent on having only a few coins but only the most desirable, most rare and most perfect. The concept of beginner coins for beginners suffers from a trend in beginners to believe that only chumps would want the ordinary stuff and they should own first the things that once were considered things to aspire to own.....someday. I suggest an ancient 'type' collection with coins that represent others of their genre but make no pretense of being a completeable 'set'. Some of us refer to these as "Coins that speak to me." I agree with the suggestions of VanMeter and Sayles. I also approve of the one volume Sear Roman which served many beginners well but Mr Sear decided to abandon in favor of an vain attempt to list every Roman coin he thought worth mentioning even if it took five volumes and still missed covering more than it included. Used copies of the one volume Roman Coins and their Values are worth buying used when they can be found. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...d_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr= Still these only cover Romans so they omit 90% of ancient coins which we term Greek, Eastern, Provincial, Celtic, Asian and areas which escape my mind at the moment. There are books on each of these which might be advised but most beginners seem to start with Roman. I lived for my coin books when I started fifty years ago but today we have another option for numismatic education. Online resources come in three basic types. First are the groups like Coin Talk where beginners are invited to bounce questions off of people a bit more experienced than they are (or not) and try to determine which answers make sense. Second we have listings of coins for sale or sold in the past which are listed with a great deal of information about the coins in question. You DO NOT have to buy your coins where you read about them. Obviously the dealers who post all these pages hope you will think of them when spending your collecting dollar but your first purchase does not have to follow your first Google search. Read about a thousand and buy one. Third are web pages posted as information sources by great and small 'authorities' from places like the British Museum down to people who just want to show their collections to those who will look. Somewhere in the lower-middle region of these I count my non commercial site with my opinions on what you might want to know. If you hang around Coin Talk, others will point out other resources the collector (new or old) would benefit from knowing. Books are wonderful and I have a few hundred (large and small) on ancient coins. I have spent thousands on my library but mine is small by some standards. Much of the online material is free for the looking (there are some that want money but they are not needed to keep a beginner busy for a few lifetimes). I invite you to visit my pages: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/
What I didn't realize until I had been on Cointalk for a while, is that there are very many internationally respected ancient coin authorities on this very forum. And most of them are very generous with their knowledge and patient with beginners. Doug Smith, who just posted above has been collecting ancients for half a century and his website is chock full of knowledge, and may portions are written specifically with the beginner in mind. I'd highly recommend it. When I started, three of the books that I found most helpful were the following: Roman Coins and Their Values 4th revised edition, by David Sear (the single volume mentioned by Doug above) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/roman-coins-and-their-values-david-sear/1126480345/2678352875560?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_New Marketplace Shopping Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP164951&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-qDTBRD-ARIsAJ_10yJVQinvBM0m-_oQbBNVmDPM4k48of6-tgdLhGpGxXl3wHedvgQsskMaAmdlEALw_wcB Ancient coin collecting II. Numismatic Art of the Ancient Greek World, by Wayne G Sayles, https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Coin-Collecting-II-Numismatic/dp/0873415000 Ancient Greek and Roman Coins, by Zander Klawans https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Ancient-Greek-Roman-Coins/dp/030709362X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_1? _encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1DC5BCVSCYR27P5426C6 Best of luck to you!
Without a doubt. It was particularly helpful when I went to coin shows; it's kind of tough to lug around the 10 volume set of RIC. I still have it in my library and use it quite often for general information.
I bought Van Meter's paperback edition and liked it so much that I bought one of the signed leather-bound editions. I don't actually use it for a reference, but I still like it.
