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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 786665, member: 19463&quot;]&quot;Early World Coins &amp; Early Weight Standards&quot; by Robert Tye, York,&nbsp; 2009.</p><p><br /></p><p>My copy of this book arrived and I have spent the last few days&nbsp; enjoying it.&nbsp; I recommend it highly to anyone who collects Early World Coins and anyone who is willing to admit that there are coins worth studying&nbsp; that are neither Greek <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=nor" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=nor"></a>nor Roman.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am a coin photographer.&nbsp; The book has one&nbsp; excellent photograph on the cover and not a single one inside.&nbsp; The author&nbsp; states that for many coins covered by the book that line drawings are better.&nbsp;&nbsp; He&#039;s right!&nbsp; The book contains some reasonable quality&nbsp; line drawings of ancient coins salvaged from old books and very high quality drawings of <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=1507&amp;pos=0&amp;open=1507" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=1507&amp;pos=0&amp;open=1507" rel="nofollow"></a>medieval and Asian coins drawn by the author.&nbsp; Considering the state of striking of many of&nbsp; these issues, line drawings are much more clear than any photo.&nbsp; The coins are&nbsp; organized and numbered in a <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=18" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=18" rel="nofollow"></a>catalog with rather little information on the entries but&nbsp; includes all the most common coins one is likely to see from the periods&nbsp; covered.&nbsp; The periods covered vary as to date since the term &#039;Early&#039; as opposed&nbsp; to &#039;Modern&#039; did not change over simultaneously around the world.&nbsp; The catalog seems a <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=bit" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=bit"></a>bit skimpy at just 59 pages but is extremely useful when it <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=comes" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=comes"></a>comes to identifying&nbsp; common coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the end of the catalog, the book changes gears from good to great as the&nbsp; format changes to text discussions of coin types&nbsp; that defined the periods in which they were issued.&nbsp; Emphasis is placed on&nbsp; common coins that supported commerce in their regions rather than rarities&nbsp; that seem to attract the attention of many authors.&nbsp; The <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=18" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=18" rel="nofollow"></a>catalog lists 1248 coin types (I&nbsp; would have omitted the ancients altogether and allowed more space to the later&nbsp; material which is obviously the author&#039;s <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=area" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=area"></a>area of expertise).&nbsp; Out&nbsp; of these, a collector might expect to find at least a thousand without looking&nbsp; too hard and those coins would form a great collection.&nbsp; The text section discusses all the who, where,&nbsp; when and why aspects of the major coinage groups and compensates completely for&nbsp; any brevity you might notice in the catalog section.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The book ends with a discussion of&nbsp; &#039;Early Weight Standards&#039;&nbsp; (note the title of the book) which links the various&nbsp; coin issuing authorities with each other and world economy.&nbsp; If you ever&nbsp; wondered why so many coins seem to weigh 3-4g. this section will be&nbsp; fascinating.&nbsp; Anyone who buys the book and fails to read the last part really missed out&nbsp; on the meat.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Robert Tye shows a great ability to make clear subjects&nbsp; that could be considered confusing whether he is using <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=his" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/../numiswiki/view.asp?key=his"></a>his well crafted words or his exceptional line&nbsp; drawings.&nbsp; The book is certainly one to be read cover to cover but will also&nbsp; serve as a crutch in identifying many coins that are more than a little&nbsp; confusing, especially to Western collectors.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Buy it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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