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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2428747, member: 44316&quot;]I second the recommendation of chrsmat71 of John Anthony&#039;s &quot;Collecting Greek Coins&quot; book, even if you intend to collect Roman coins. Sayles volume I shows a little bit of everything, which is good. On the other hand, I will go against the trend and not recommend the Sayles books devoted to Greek (volume II) and Roman (volume III) coins. They are too focused on high end coins, often have only one side pictured (so the fascination of historical reverses is neglected), and just give shallow information about the place or ruler that others have rightly noted could be pulled from the web. There is very little explanation of coinage--just some illustrated coins. Volume V on Byzantine coins suffers in the same way. However, volume VI on non-classical cultures is a very good overview. You can learn a bit about Parthian, Sasanian, Arabic, and other non-classical coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>The subject of Roman provincial coins from 500 mint cities with a wide variety of reverses is very complicated. Sayles&#039; book, volume IV, barely scratches the surface. Butcher&#039;s book &quot;Roman Provincial Coins&quot; is much better--truly outstanding, both very readable and with a ton of information you cannot find elsewhere. Whenever I go on trips I take it and have already read it seven times and will again. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, I think Sayles volumes I and VI are worthwhile. </p><p><br /></p><p>The best introductions to Roman and Greek coinage (as opposed to collectors&#039; guides) are in the Seaby publication series. &quot;Coinage in the Roman World&quot; by Andrew Burnett is excellent (168 pages, 187 coins illustrated). It is scholarly and entertaining and a clear exposition. Buy it!&nbsp; &quot;Coinage in the Greek World&quot; by Ian Carradice and Martin Price is similar for the Greek world (154 pages, 302 coins illustrated). Buy it!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Long ago many collectors began with books by Zander Klawans. &quot;An outline of Ancient Greek Coins&quot; includes Roman provincial coins. His &quot;Handbook&quot; and &quot;Reading and Dating&quot; will teach you things you will be glad to know. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have a copy of one Klawans book on my site:</p><p><a href="http://augustusmath.hypermart.net/numislit.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://augustusmath.hypermart.net/numislit.html" rel="nofollow">http://augustusmath.hypermart.net/numislit.html</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>I have an educational web page on books:</p><p><a href="http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html" rel="nofollow">http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Web sites are great. But they rarely have a balanced view of a series (Roman, Greek, etc.) and many do not address aspects that good books do well. If you want to know a reference ID number for a particular type you have bought, or if you want to know facts about individual coins, websites often do that well. If you want to see the forest rather than just trees, get some good books.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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