"100 Greatest Ancient Coins" HJB book discussion

I doubt there is anyone except, perhaps, an institution like the British Museum that could ever own all 100. You will note that Berk credits the coins in the photos to several different sources so he has not even handled all of them over a period of years. Most of us will be happy with ten; the exceptional among us might aspire to half. To me, the most important part of the book is the challenge to decide what we would include in our top 100.

 

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Hi ... I just got back from my BC vacation

=> it was awesome => relaxing, with a wee bit o' family stuff, seafood galore, tons of sights and good times with my sweetie ... yup, it was "flawless" ... ummm, but not one coin shop (hey, don't judge me ... this trip was all about getting away and spending time with my wife, my 90 year old Dad and my siblings ... again, it was "flawless")

Oh sorry, I digress as per usual => when I returned home this afternoon I discovered that several coins had arrived in the mail, plus, this very cool coin-book!!

I haven't had a chance of really giving it a good look yet, but other than "it looks super cool" I'm sure that I'll have a few more comments associated with its contents and my opinion of its contents!!

 

Welcome back Steve!

 

Thanks lil' dude ... yah, it's always sad when vacation is over, but it is always kinda nice to get home, see the ol' hound-dogs and sleep in your own bed, ya know?!!

Ooops, sorry Joe ... I don't want to steal this thread (my bad) ... maybe I'll start another thread of my own (maybe tomorrow)

 

Welcome back to the heat we got going on. It is almost as if Manitoba does in fact have a summer season.

It is a great read of a book.

 

So, I read-through the book and thought that it was lovely ...

Firstly:
Although my examples are certainly not nearly as nice as the ones pictured in this book, I determined that I actually already own eleven outta the one-hundred chosen coins (I was quite flattered/proud/happy that the author and I had somewhat similar tastes in coins) ... good job, Harlan

Secondly:
After reading through the book, I revisited all of the coins and narrowed it down to "my favourite three" ... ummm, which we've already determined is gonna vary drastically/emotionally depending upon who is chosing the order ...

... anyway ...

Not surprisingly, my three favourite coins were animal-based coins:

stevex6's #3 choice => Harlan's #38 (Delphic Tridrachm)

stevex6's #2 choice => Harlan's #7 (Arethusa Facing Head Tetradrachm by Kimon)

stevex6's #1 choice => Harlan's #21 (Acragas Skylla Tetradrachm)

Sweet, eh?



Buy the book and check 'em out!! (very cool) .... ummm, or go to the library?

 

No, buy the book and support authors who might write another. According to Worldcat, there are two libraries that have this book within 200 miles of me so buying the book will be cheaper than going to the library for most of you even if the listed libraries would let you in (not all will).
http://www.worldcat.org/title/100-greatest-ancient-coins/oclc/230705114&referer=brief_results

I have some second thoughts about a decision I made in 1997 when I started ny website: When I started in 1997 there were very few places on the Internet you could go for free information on ancient coins. One was Warren's site but he specialized in different areas than I did. Between us and a few other early Internet posters we may have enabled some new collectors to skip buying a few books. For this I am sorry. I have worked with a couple people who put a lot of effort into their books and ended up eating a stack of them when people decided that they were not worth buying. Someone once asked me why I didn't put out my website as a book. The answer is simple: I enjoy being retired and not having to work to pay off my publisher bill.

Most of you know that I have relatively little use for catalogs of coins which have little information beyond a numbered (worse: numbered and valued) lists of what exists. I love books like John Anthony's Greek Coins which tell stories about the coins but don't pretend to help you ID your collection. I really value the many pages in RIC that discuss the coins as opposed to the catalog sections although even the catalog pages have a lot of information partially in footnotes that most people don't read. I have pointed out that there is a lot of great information about coins in CNG sale catalogs (now online which is great since they stopped sending me free copies a decade ago - not oddly about the time I stopped buying many coins from them). Books on ancient coins will be fewer and more expensive now that so much of the information is available on the Internet for free. It is not my fault but I feel a little responsible for the fact that there is (IMHO) no good beginner's book on collecting ancient coins in print today. I do, however, feel I share a little of the blame with Warren, CNG, ACSearch, Wildwinds and a bunch of others that made giving something for nothing as profitable as selling hardcopy books. If you prefer books, buy some. Used books don't count. Neither do remaindered books (I bought a half dozen copies of Anthony at $1.98 and gave them to friends). CNG publishes quite a number of possibly interesting titles I have not seen because I am too cheap to buy them blindly and no one writes book reviews except me (so I was told by an author of a book I reviewed none to favorably). If you want to see more books in the future, buy a few now (and tell me if I might like them as well).

 

Great post, Doug. I recently bought a book at the ANA show: "Ancient Greek Coins" by G. K. Jenkins. I flipped it open and found a picture of a coin that I didn't know and was really impressed by so I decided to buy it. I didn't realize at the time that it was $54. I was buying several other items and had a fairly large bill so I didn't notice how expensive this one was. However, I think it was well worth it (and it can be found for much less on Amazon if anyone is interested).

 

Wow, you two Biggity-ups aren't even gonna comment on my three coin-picks?

... brutal, I'm goin' to the library!!

 

Sorry about that stevex6 - I didn't see your post above Doug's. I definitely like your #1 pick. What 11 do you have out of the top 100? I'm hoping not much overlap with mine so that we can cover a larger portion of the overall 100 list within the forum.

 

Like I said above:

My coins are certainly not in the same league as these coins (and a few may even be knock-offs of similar type coins, but I gave myself credit for them anyways) ...

1 - #9 - Lydia AR Siglos


2 - # 5 - Syracuse Heiron I Tetradrachm (okay sure, this is one of those prementioned cheats!!)


3 - #16 - Aegina Sea Turtle Stater


4 - #10 - Athens Tetradrachm (again, mine example is an ancient imitation ... close enough)


5 - #69 - Thebes Stater


6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -

 

I'm at 0...

 

6 - #27 - Rhodes (ahaha, again my example is a rare early issue, so it looks a bit different than Harlan's ... I love my coin)


7 - #44 - Philip II Tetradrachm


8 - #20 - Alexander The Great Tetradrachm (okay, my dude's face is stoved-in from the counterstamp ... close enough)


9 - #23 - Corinth Stater


10 - #34 - AES Grave AS


11 -

 

11 - #98 - Justinian I Follis


12 - #1 - Brutus "EID MAR" Denarius


... good one, eh?

 

Ummm, so do I get big-boy-credit for "any" of my coins?

 

Joe: Thanks but a 1972 book purchased in 2013 is hardly supporting the industry.
Steve: I like your choices but you will remember that my #1 was the dekadrachm version of yours which really is nothing near as well designed as yours but serves to show how shallow I am picking the big bauble. I have to ask how much of your fondness for the coin is the two eagles and how much the Skylla?

My share of the 100:
#9 Mine is a small fraction as shown in the group on page 13


#16 I've shown this so many times I know you are tired of it:


#10 I have several of these including later and smaller but I'll show the classical well cut one here.


#69 I've never really liked these but I bought one anyway.


#27 Mine is a stater not a tetradrachm.


#45 My prettiest one is a fourree but I'll show a more ordinary silver stater.


#20 Way too ordinary to make this list!


More will follow in a separate post.

 

I have written a few book reviews on here, but they didn't seem too interesting.

You can always ask. Some of us do keep buying boring old paper books, like the recent SNS series, etc.

 

#23 Ordinary but a beautiful type when style is good


#56 Thanks to whoever scratched mine down into something I could afford.


#50 Boring


#83 I would not list this against Berk's aureus but his titles on the page say he will show the sestertius but went gold in the image. Here you see my lowly denarius.


#88 I don't have the cippus but the write up makes it seem OK to include any of the series from the celebration of 1000 years. Considering everything, I think the wolf should have been selected.


This is pushing it too far but this is a junky single sestertius of the same reverse Berk showed as a high grade double sestertius.


#92 No I do not have the triple portrait but the same C mint produced the same reverse for the three heads separately. I only have two of the three separately but realistically have no hope of ever having the three in one. At least this has the GGG as required.


#98 Common but I don't have a Constantinople year 12 so I'll show a Cyzicus 12 (my only 12) with no face.


#99 Yes, there are a million of them as Berk says and, yes, most are worse than mine.


#94 This does not count but at least mine is clear enough that you can read it is John VIII. Berk's coin is a Constantine XI but partly identifiable by the crude style. It is among the best I've seen since the KWNCT is there with very little imagination.


How many I have depends on how liberal you are counting the close ones. If I were working from all stock photos of coins I have ever seen, I'd probably include about half of the Berk 100 in my 100. If I were showing my favorite 100 from my collection, only about half of the ones I showed here would make the 100 list. That is what I like about ancient coins. Each of us can have 100 favorites as long as we have 100 coins or can dream about the day we have 100 coins better than Mr. Berk's selections.

 

Doug => good lookin' coins (I'll give you 100% on your coins, as long as you're backing-up my dog pound as well!)



Oh, and using Doug's ROT, I am adding #88 to my list as well:

 

Having just gotten back into reading I am happy with any book suggestions anyone may have.

As for coins in the top 100 I don't have any...yet.