Help me spend my Barnes & Noble Gift Certificate

I have a $50 gift certificate from B&N that is burning a hole in my pocket. There is nothing at either of the local stores that I want right now. I have a pretty good ancient numismatics and history library now, but there is always that desire to have more, so I am reaching out to my Coin Talk brethren for help.

I am interested in :

Biblical Coins
Roman Britain
Roman Egypt and Syria
Greek Imperial
Ancient Greece and Rome

I have pretty much everything someone could want on the Roman Imperial series. I'm open to history as well as coin books, but leaning towards a coin book right now and it is okay if your suggestion exceeds my $50 certificate.

So what should I buy from Barnes & Noble's website?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions which I know will be awesome!

 

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Spend it on coffee. Every book they sell can be found cheaper online.

 

You could sell it at cardcash.com and use the proceeds as Sakata suggested. It varies, but I think they pay about 80 cents on the dollar, if that's not too much of a hit for you.

 

Buy the book "Ship of Gold in the deep blue sea".

 

Ooh... oooooh... buy "Strike it Rich with Pocket Change"... you'll tick off a *bunch* of people here!

<Disclaimer: I am kidding about buying the book... totally serious about getting people here worked up about the book>

 

You can use a B&N gift card online. You will get a much better selection.

 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome: A New History

 

Someone just recommended this to me so I'm ordering it.

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before...38&sr=8-1&keywords=the+storm+before+the+storm

 

Since you said you were interested in Biblical coins, I’d recommend “Money of The Bible” by Kenneth Bressett, the man who edits (writes) the Red Book.

Here’s a link to a review I wrote:
http://www.coinshowradio.com/money-bible-kenneth-bressett/

 

The Long Ships is an excellent historical fiction of the vikings.

 

GIC or Greek Imperial Coins is a 4 volume set, 3 are in English and the fourth is in Bulgarian.

I really want this bookset and I will get it one day.

http://www.varbanovbooks.com/index.html

 

Just bought "Newton and the Counterfeiter". Few people know that Sir Issac Newton was "Master" of the Royal Mint.

 

This one by Jasper Burns.

 

I agree, it's one of the best works of historical fiction I've ever read.

As for history, I would recommend either The Punic Wars, or How Rome Fell by Adrian Goldsworthy. He is a great historian and an excellent writer.

 

Price guides for coins and other collectibles are obsolete the day they are printed. I use their guides to look up things in their coffee shop and never buy the price guides. I keep one cheap obsolete price guide to help on locating the mint marks and determining what the mintages were for that coin. If a coin was common ten years ago it is still common now. If it was rare ten years ago I can make a point to see the current price guide. Condition rarities are a major exception to this general rule. I would use the gift card to purchase coffee or hot cider or hot chocolate as I perused their books. $50 could last you all year that way. Finally you could use the gift card to buy toner and make your own hard copy of an out of print book that is available for free on line.