"100 Greatest Ancient Coins" HJB book discussion

I have reviewed some very good ancient-coin books here:
http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html
on my page "How to learn more about ancient coins."

 

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You're being way too harsh on yourself here. The majority of coin books that I own were purchased mainly because I learned about them from other's websites and references to those books.

In reality, your own website very likely sold some (or many) of those books to readers who otherwise would never have heard of them if you hadn't used some of those books' material and referenced them on your website. I'd bet good money that those new collectors who read your website but never bought the books you referenced would never have bought them anyway, and probably never even have heard of them. Surely you contributed positively to the sales of those books, rather than negatively.

Just my $0.02.

 

Thanks Warren!

 

Doug, I must agree with my good buddy, IoM ...

=> I'm positive that I have bought more books because of your recommendations (probably at least two or three), than from any other source ...

Hey basically, you're not only a pretty coin-face, you're also a pretty good lead to follow!!



=> keep-up the awesome work, coin-God!!

 

Brown-noser!

 

ahaha ... you're right!!

... but for some reason, I just can't help myself!! (the dude rocks!!)

 

If I were to have to criticize the 100 book it would be for its inconsistency when it comes to defining what is a 'coin' for the purpose of the list. The Croesid bull/lion type is represented by a page full of variations on the theme in more than one metal and more than one size. Syracusan dekadrachms get two separate listings according to whether the die was cut by Euainatos (#3) or Kimon (#4) and a third for the only slightly different Demareteion (#5). Had he used the same criteria for Syracuse that he used for Croesis, I might have been able to post my Syracuse tetradrachm and hexas from the series headlined by those two dekadrachms. Realize that I'm no better since when I posted my top 25 on that other list, the top three were all Septimius Severus issues with the Victor Ivst reverse. Many others, including that Philip millennium commemorative, were represented by one coin out of several that fit the motif. Here I claim such a major advantage over Mr. Berk: Anything I post on this space or on my webpage can be updated with some ease in case I change my mind. He is pretty much stuck with those 100 and the huge stack of books both sold and remaining in stock. Since I posted my top 25 list, I have acquired at least ten new (to me) coins that could elbow their way into the top 25 and certainly would make my next list at least a top 50. Sinc Mr. Berk was listing on what he knows to exist after a life in numismatics, I doubt he has become aware of more than one possibly worthy coin that he did not know when the book was published. Ranking coins in the top group is really impossible for me since I learn and forget at an amazing rate these days and since I am as fickle as I choose to be. That is OK; it is, after all, just a hobby. It's not like I was basing a multi-million dollar business on people being willing to pay over melt value for my collection.

 

I stumbled upon cointalk, signed up, saw this thread, downloaded the book. Wow! Very interesting historical notes-- a very good purchase for this ancient newbie.

Was delighted to see that my first ancient purchase made the cut and is the same variety depicted in the book-- with Silenus doing a photobomb. I was very surprised to read that this is not Athena but an 'armed Aphrodite'.

#23, Corinth Stater

 

Beautiful coin TIF and welcome.

 

I agree with Bing => wow, and welcome!!

 

Wonderful control mark TIF. Excellent choice for an example of a colt.

 

Y'know, the downloaded book just didn't cut it. I need a real book to better admire the pictures. Ordered one last week.

Digital books are a great convenience but this is the type of book I'd rather have in dead tree form.

 

Great coin!

That is new to me. I see that Berk does say that but I'd like to see the process behind that reevaluation. I can't say I accept it and find it interesting that both CNG and Berk (the author of the 100 book) websites are currently offering the type identified as Athena. What is going on here???

For the record, the traditional identification of the (not helmeted) head found on the drachm of this series has always been Aphrodite.

 

=> if that's not Athena in the Corinthian helmet, then my world is gonna spiral off of its axis!!