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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;FitzNigel, post: 4579401, member: 74712&quot;]Martin Dimnik and Julian Dobrinić, <i>Medieval Slavic Coinages in the Balkans: Numismatic History and Catalogue</i> (London: Spink, 2008)</p><p>ISBN: 978-1902040851</p><p>Price: £40 (about $50 as of 6/2020)</p><p>252 pgs, 8.5” x 11”</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1133980[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Grade: B</p><p><br /></p><p>I have had mixed thoughts about this book, as there are some elements that are really quite good, and others which are a little frustrating.&nbsp; Perhaps what I like best of all is the simple fact that it is a cohesive book of an area of numismatics that could be quite confusing, and it is in English.&nbsp; While I suspect Metcalf’s <i>Coinage in South-Eastern Europe</i> covers the same ground, I haven’t yet seen a copy of that book to make a comparison.&nbsp; Either way, Dimnik and Dobrinić’s book is a least more recent, even if it is limited to just Slavic issues (as other powers issued coins in the Balkans during the Middle Ages).&nbsp; It is also well researched, and very meticulous in its descriptions (almost every coin, even imitatives, have a full description), but to the point where it felt a little repetitive at times.&nbsp; However, It did shine on the historical background of the Slavic Balkans by giving a very brief overview of the history of the region, dating back to pre-Roman times in many instances, to set the complicated stage for the coming of the Slavs, and their eventual striking of coinage when not under Byzantine control.&nbsp; I actually wish there was a little more of this, but that is more due to my ignorance of the history of the region, which it is not the responsibility of a book on coins to fill.</p><p><br /></p><p>The book is split into two halves, the first being the history and description of the coinages, and the second half a catalogue of the coins.&nbsp; Both parts are then broken down into subsequent areas of the Balkans covered in the text: Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, The East Adriatic Towns (Including Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split, Hvar, Ragusa, Kotor, Bar, Uljcinj, Skadar, Drivast, and Svač), and Bulgaria (The second Bulgarian Empire which was more culturally Slavic than Bulgarian).&nbsp; On the one hand, not having the catalogue for each part next tot he history portion is frustrating, as it means flipping the page quite a bit took look at the catalogue while reading, but on the other hand, having the catalogue separate should be more useful for identifying types.&nbsp; If the history portion where just small paragraphs, then this layout would be a detriment, but with the comprehensive history and descriptions, I think it works.&nbsp; The catalogue surprised me a little in that it is completely hand drawings, with no pictures of the coins at all.&nbsp; This can be good, as many of these coins are rather crude, and it can be difficult to make out the devices.&nbsp; However, many of the drawings are idealistic and not representative of the artistic style of the coins (particularly in the Bulgarian section).&nbsp; While this is not entirely the fault of the authors (they did not make the drawings, but sourced them from other catalogues), they did make the decision to use them.&nbsp; The book isn’t entirely without pictures though, as many of the types have a photograph accompanying its description in the historical portion.&nbsp; So in a way, the book gives the best of both worlds with photographs and hand drawings, which I think was a reasonable compromise.</p><p><br /></p><p>The book is not a complete catalogue with all types and varieties, as it states so from the beginning.&nbsp; I can understand how this would then make for a monumental task, and probably increase the price of the book significantly.&nbsp; However, the limitations of not showing every type are sometimes seen when attempting to use the book to identify certain issues.&nbsp; For example, I became interested in a Dinar from Ragusa (Dubrovnik) which had a weight of 1.05 grams.&nbsp; These coins were struck between 1337 and 1621, with the weight of the coins starting at 1.95 grams, and ending at 0.64 grams between this time.&nbsp; But no intermediary steps in weight are given in the book that would aid me in further dating the coin (as I wanted one from before 1500), even though the catalogue hinted that more specific dating by weight was possible.&nbsp; Granted, there is another way to identify this type as being before 1438, but most of this information is gained through dense reading in the history of the coinages, rather than readily available in the catalogue portion.&nbsp; Which then makes the two portions being split a hassle again.</p><p><br /></p><p>I may have some other minor complaints, but I fear voicing them would make it sound like this is a poor book, which it certainly is not.&nbsp; There is a lot of good information, and will be a very useful reference for the coins of the Balkans.&nbsp; I’ll admit that before buying this book I had little interest in the coins of this region as they all seemed crude and simply imitative of the Venetian Grosso or Byzantine trachys.&nbsp; But after reading this, I learned of some very interesting types, and knowing the history around some of the coins has changed my opinion of them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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