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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 206, member: 57463&quot;]<b>Greeks and Romans and Celts (and Jews)! Oh my!!</b></p><p><br /></p><p>One problem with ancients is all the HOAXES out there.&nbsp; Let me explain.</p><p><br /></p><p>The way I understand ancient coins is as artifacts of ANCIENT HISTORY.&nbsp; You have to know your cultures and peoples and persons for the coins to make any sense.&nbsp; Most people who are attracted to ancients understand and appreciate the ROMAN EMPIRE.&nbsp; Then, without really knowing the history of Rome, they fall for some 3rd century &quot;silver&quot; fouree that costs $5 and is not worth 5 cents. </p><p><br /></p><p>If you know the history of Rome, you stand a better chance of buying something that really speaks to your heart.&nbsp;&nbsp; (And I know an engineer who really truly does relate to the ultimate goal of a process and&nbsp; he does really like coins of the fall of the western Romans.) For me, when I collected, my interest was REPUBLICAN ROME and then also THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS (also known as the Pax Romana, the height of the empire).&nbsp; As a libertarian, I was happy to own a coin of Marcus Porcius Cato, the last of the republicans.&nbsp; So, you have to know your history.</p><p><br /></p><p>The BEST series of books for Roman and Greek history, literature, and culture, is the LOEB CLASSICS LIBRARY.&nbsp; These little Red (Roman) and Green (Greek) books cost about $20 per volume.&nbsp; They have Latin or Greek on the left and English on the right.&nbsp; I have a few Romans (Cicero, Livy) and more Greeks (Aristotle, Hesiod, Diogenes,...) because I have had more of an interest in the Greeks. </p><p><br /></p><p>Of all the books in English about the ancient world FROM the ancient world, the one book anyone serious about ancient coins needs is PLUTARCH&#039;S LIVES.&nbsp; The standard editions have not been updated in 100 years and are based on Dryden&#039;s translation.&nbsp; Plutarch compared and contrasted famous Romans with famous Greeks (Alexander and Julius Caesar, for instance).&nbsp; His biographies are the foundation.</p><p><br /></p><p>After that, the histories -- Thucydides and Herodotus for the Greeks; Suetonius for the Romans -- are easy to find in translation.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Everyone is crazy for Celtic stuff these days.&nbsp; Enya is Top 40.&nbsp; Celtic coins are out there.&nbsp; Celtic histories are not.</p><p><br /></p><p>Jewish coins are well supported by Jewish histories, of course, from the first &quot;Yehud&quot; coins of the Persians to the last of the Bar Kochbar revolt pieces.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Christians need to be mindful that they are often seen as sheep to be shorn by coin dealers (of every religion and none) who sell &quot;Tribute Pennies&quot; for the prices they bring, despite the huge body of literature to the contrary.&nbsp; &quot;Widows Mites&quot; and &quot;30 Shekels&quot; and the &quot;Stater from the Fish&quot; are all doable as, of course, is the denarius of the grape fields.&nbsp; One interesting and affordable collection goal for a Christian is to follow Paul and get one bronze coin from each town.&nbsp; One subset of that quest would be the 12 Churches of Asia.&nbsp; Another would be to get one coin from each of the congregations of the Epistles.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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