Recommended books for learning about Ancient Greek coinage?

Hello all,
I've been collecting ancient Greek coins here and there for the last two years. I guess you could call it a shotgun approach, without any real focus or definition - just an attraction to the coin designs, age and perceived history. I now have about 60 coins of varying conditions and age, and due to other financial commitments haven't bought anything since March of this year.

I expect to be picking back up on collecting soon but would rather do it going forward with a more educated approach. Perhaps even focusing the acquisitions to certain periods, cities/regions and/or age. I am specifically interested in pre-Roman provincial coinage.

What are a few good books to give a relative beginner a good background on pre-Roman Greek coinage?

Thanks in advance!
Jim

 

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• Coinage in the Greek World, by Carradice & Price
• Ancient Coin Collecting II - Numismatic Art of the Greek World, by Wayne Sayles
• Oxford Handbook of Greek & Roman Coinage, edited by Metcalf

These are good, non-cataloguey books.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Thank you sir!

 

I also like "Ancient Greek Coins" by G K Jenkins. The first edition has more pictures.

John

 

I tend to collect all the Greek coin types from cities I like such as Syracuse, Rhegion, Elis, Larissa, Samos, etc.

These cities have designs that appeal to me.

John

 

Thank you both! The books are ordered so I should be on my way soon towards an educated approach.

 

Maybe look for an old copy of Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics, by Barclay Head. It has been digitized and there are recent, thoroughly revised volumes, but it is still a classic and a good print book to have. They run about $40 on Abebooks, I just saw. The Jenkins recommendation is another very good one.

 

I like Antony, Collecting Greek Coins. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html#anthony

They are easily available used.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis...?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1534595402&sr=8-1

 

Head's "Historia Numorum, 2nd edition" was my Bible when I started collecting Greek back in the early 60's. But it is important to be able to read the Greek legend on the coin (or at least as much of it as you can) and then look up the mint in Head.
From there you can move on to illustrated reference books which will help you find a match for your coin. Try to avoid reprints, the photos are poor. BMC originals, SNG Copenhagen originals, and other more recent (and more reasonable priced) SNGs are books that will always give you pleasure and knowledge to browse through. Famous collections, like Jameson, Weber, McClean and important old auction catalogues of single owner collections like Pozzi and Rhousopoulos are also a must. I know I am talking thousands of dollars here but these books, in their original, not reprint, versions should be in the library of every serious collector of Greek coins. Perhaps some will disagree with this policy and will say it would be best to spend all this money on coins but if you want this to be a hobby of a lifetime you might as well start thinking about these books now so that you can learn from them visually and otherwise at this early stage of your collecting.

 

Thanks to everyone for your valuable recommendations.

 

The problem I have had is distinguishing between new books that will be worth having in the distant future and those that were not worth buying when they were new and went down from there. We may not all agree on which are which but I have hundreds of dollars worth of coin books that I will never consider worth owning. I, too, liked Head in its day. SNG are high cost but pretty to hold and browse. BMC Greek are very dated but I still enjoy BMC Roman. To get the good ones, you must risk buying some that will gather dust.

 

I am getting into collecting Greek coins (baby steps) and this thread has been really helpful. I have already ordered a few of the titles. Hopefully, this isn't a stupid question. What are SNG and BMC?

 

SNG = Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
BMC = British Museum Catalogue

There are many SNGs, covering different collections - basically, it's a format where the coins are depicted in the page opposite their description. So, many institutions habe catalogued their collections in this format. The SNG Copenhagen (Danish Royal Collection) is the most complete - originally published in 40+ (?) volumes, the latest reprints are in 8 volumes. There are many others, some of which are more useful than others for a particular region. E.g. Von Aulock, ANS.

The British Museum Catalogues are comprehensive, but pretty old, for Greek coins. I've an idea there are 29 volumes, at least some of which can be found online in some format. There is a BMC Roman Republic catalogue from 1910 (I have a reprint from 1970 or so) and a BMC Roman Empire catalogue, which was reprinted fairly recently with improved plates (this is the one I have) - apparently of similar quality to the original print and much better than earlier reprints. The general comment that reprints have poor plates is certainly true and first issues often command a significant premium - it can be the difference between being able to see a coin clearly and a dark blob.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Thank you. I have heard of those but didn’t recognize the acronyms.