Yah, the dude kinda rocks!! I have eight other David Sear books ... but this signed first edition is pretty fricken cool, yes?
Nice Steve. I love signed copies...especially first editions...of reference books. I have a couple myself, one from Dave Bowers. Bruce
Cool Steve. I plan on ordering the last of his latest edition of Roman Coins direct from the author to get it autographed. I wonder when Vol V is coming out?
My friend Tim, an avid ancient collector of many years, knows Sear pretty well, although they don't see each other very often (we are in NY, and he lives in CA if I'm not mistaken). He does still send him coins for attribution occasionally.
So is your name actually Steve, or Jerry? I've heard people call you Jerry, and so I picked up on it. If I've been wrong, I apologize.
JA: Long story, but the short version is that we (Steve and I) were compared to Bing Crosby and Jerry Lewis. That's when I changed my forum name to Bing and I've been calling Steve - Jerry - ever since.
Several years ago I bought a two volume set of the 1834 work Roman Coins by J.W. Akerman (not a book you really need). While not signed it has a feature that some might consider interesting. Each volume had one of the blank pages at the front of the book cut down and glued to a folded letter sheet containing a letter signed by Akerman answering a coin question that had been sent by, I assume, the owner of the book. Unfortunately that person is not named (called "Dear Sir"). The letters are fully in cursive and dated 1848 but must have been sent in envelopes since they bear no postal markings as would be expected on a folded letter sheet. This would be the equivalent of gluing in a letter from David Sear in your copy of his book since Akerman was something of a numismatic celebrity of his day. The book has nicely engraved illustrations (all available online, I'll guess) but is largely useless as a reference. He listed only coins with rare reverses and offered his opinions on which of the rare were more rare than the others. I do not suggest you buy the book unless you want to buy mine. It has some interesting parts but nothing approaching the prices I see them bringing on eBay. I wonder how the two tipped in letters affect the value? I rather like the idea compared to a scribble on the inside front.
Very nice Steve, I have the D. Sear Greek books and the Roman. One book has the name of some guy who used to own it and is marked up a little bit. I would like to get the Greek Imperial book, but cannot find one yet. I'm glad your taking some photos now. Nice shots of the books.
Oh, sorry gang => thanks for your coin-atta-boys (I always appreciate those precious words-o-wisdom!!) Hmmm, I guess that the OP-coin is a bit out o' my usual eh? ... ummm, but it is book-smart!!
I used to have a copy of it, as well as an earlier Seaby version. I sold them off when I got rid of duplicates through a dealer friend. I do own every current version of all books he has except for the roman silver coins series.
It is funny that I don't own any coin books yet. Call me a product of the technological age. I prefer the excel tables of Helvetica for RIC and Wildwinds to book and binding. The being said you could also call me a collector of old books. While it is very modest so far (I spend all my money on coins) I do have a healthy appreciation for books. But alas most of my reading comes electronically on my tablet or my cellphone. In fact I do most of my reading on the bus every morning on my cellphone on my way to work. Here is my favourite book I own so far:
Huh .... yah man, I "love" old books ... => super cool Very cool ... Man, I love old books ... that is definitely my sweetie's fourtee
Those books are fantastic! I hope to someday have an early Alice in Wonderland. I feel bad saying this but I am hoping I am in my uncles will when he passes... he has first editions of all three Lord of the Rings books and The Two Towers is signed by Tolkein
Like I wrote elsewhere sir, it can be dangerous. If you are relying on others interpretations of books, how do you know they didn't make a mistake? I see lots of errors in online attributions repeated over and over. Plus, by buying reference books, you are subsidizing numismatic researchers, which everyone in the hobby benefits from.
I would love to support numismatic researchers. Heck if everything goes to plan I may be one of those researchers one day. The simple fact is that I don't have the money into building a numismatic library. I just checked David Sear's website and all four volumes of his Roman Coin's and their Values is ~370 dollars. If I wasn't paying that much in student loans bi-weekly I might have the books already. The only real difference for my attributions then would be that I would find it online and reconfirm it with the books. I wouldn't turn to the book first.
Hey, everyone is in a different place financially in their life. I am not trying to throw anyone under the bus because they cannot afford a book, just those who can afford them but choose not to buy them. Check them out from the university library. I believe you will like them enough to wish to own them someday when you can afford it.