Some beginners want to know more about ancient coins in general. Some have specific questions they ask on CT. CT is a good place to learn. Many of us older members are happy to respond. I'd like to take this thought to another, higher, level. Inquiring minds want to know. How can they know? They can read about ancient coins on CT or web sites like mine: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ or Doug's: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ or many other sites listed here: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/sitelinks.html If you buy a coin you probably want to learn about it after you buy it. However, if you learn about ancient coins in general before you buy, you will choose coins to buy that are more interesting and more pleasing. They used to say "Buy the book before the coin." The idea is still true, but I know many of you are satisfied with web sites. But web sites do not give you a big picture. There is so much about coinage that books cover that web sites do not. A general book on Roman coins will answer a lot of the questions asked on CT, open your eyes to what is out there and why it is interesting, and advance you from "beginner" to "intermediate" (and informed) collector. As an old guy, I think many CT members are making serious mistakes by not learning more before they buy. Coin collecting is a hobby of the mind. Coins are just metal disks until you know something about them. First you learn they are old. Wow! 1700 years old (or more)! Then you learn who or where they were issued. Athens! Wow! I've heard of Athens. Commodus. He was in the movie Gladiator! But, there is so much more to know (that is a great pleasure) that you might not even know about at all! What were they worth? Taxes. Economy. Coin reforms. Silver purity. Bust and hair styles. Moneyers. If you only knew them, you would agree there are many interesting things about Roman or Greek coins that go beyond the CT level of information. You might even be able to answer CT questions instead of pose them! Yes, I am encouraging you to get a book. Get several. They are cheap! Much cheaper than coins and more valuable. More valuable? Yes! The "mind" part of a "hobby of the mind" can be developed by books. Then you will buy better, enjoy more, and you will choose to get coins that interest you more. As you learn about quality, you will buy coins at better prices for their types. Good books are an investment with a high return. One of my educational pages has some book reviews: http://augustuscoins.com/pages/edit/coins/ed/numis/learnmore.html Okay. I'll say it again. I'm an old guy and learned a lot by reading books. Maybe you haven't. But I find it surprising that someone would collect ancient coins without having books like these: Carradice and Price: Coinage in the Greek World Burnett: Coinage in the Roman World Butcher: Roman Provincial Coins: An Introduction to the Greek Imperials Jenkins: Ancient Greek Coins (The first edition is far better than the second) Sutherland: Roman Coins Jones: A Dictionary of Ancient Greek Coins Jones: A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins Grant: Roman History from Coins Harl: Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B. C. to A. D. 700 Grierson: Byzantine Coins Whitting: Byzantine Coins Read my book-review page to find out more. Then I recommend you splurge on books to double your pleasure with the coins you already own and the ones you will buy. Ancient Greek Coins SOLD
Great post @Valentinian I agree with what you have said. I have very much enjoyed the books I have and reading them has led to a greater appreciation for the coins in my collection and for those I want to own. Your site is a great resource and I hope the new collectors take advantage of the great deal of information available there. I read for several months before buying my first coin and I have never regretted that use of my time. Sure there is a lot of information on the internet, some of it is even accurate, but to me there is no replacement for a good book on a subject in which you are interested. Reading the books I have has given me an appreciation for the long hours of research that goes into them. It has also led to an activity that I very much enjoy-tracking down a coin reference in a book. I would rather rely on my own analytical skills than trust everyone who puts coin references on the internet. One benefit of this has been that I have found several rare coins that were misattributed as common in a number of online auctions. This has enabled me to pick up some nice rarities for the price of a common coin. In this case it literally pays to do one's research. Thanks again for the very informative post.
I started out reading about ancient coins when I was 11 and read every book I could find. I also got Max and Albert Hirmer's book Roman Coins which contained a timeline based historical synopsis along with beautiful plates of Roman coins of each ruler. I don't believe the book is in print anymore but I'd highly recommend it to a beginner, used copies are available online. Understanding the history behind the coins leads to far more collecting pleasure, and in some cases, coins fill in the historical gaps when the source historical material is lacking or nonexistent, which is terrific.
I certainly agree with the above but I care less about how and where you gain that 'book learnin'. When we old guys were learning the basics of coins, there were two ways. One was face to face conversation with 'older' collectors who filled our ears with wonderful things whenever we saw them at coin clubs or shows. The other was the written word (books, magazines, catalogs). Twenty+ years ago both Valentinian and I decided to dip our toes in this new fangled Internet thing and started our web pages. Nothing makes me happier when I hear from someone that I had something to do with their becoming interested or even educated in our subject. Books have been made for a few thousand years. Online materials on ancient coins older than our two sites are hard to find. It is a new way of doing the old thing: spreading knowledge. My favorite college professor said, "It is more fun to know than not to know." He was right but never wrote a book and died before there were web pages. I believe that the progress from face to face to books to online knowledge passing will advance as we learn to use the new tools. It will not take thousands of years to make online ancient coin sources more and more valuable. I already prefer the medium due to the possibility to large and numerous photos and the ability to carry ten thousand of them on a tablet the size of a comic book. I can search and find information that previously would have required hours of page flipping and mold inhaling in musty stacks. There is room for both. 'Old guys' like me will not live to see one or the other become supreme. I hope the future lovers of ancient coins will tke the best of all three ways of information passing. Talk to each other, write books and participate online.
One of the oldest general reference books on Roman coins .……… (By Zander H. Klawans) ……… is, in my opinion, one of the most useful to this day. New editions (still bound in the familiar green buckram) can be purchased for just a few dollars from Amazon and for those who treasure nostalgia, used copies are readily available for right around a ten dollar bill. I bought my copy in 1953 (the first year of publication) at the coin department of Joske’s of Texas in San Antonio - many years before most members of this Forum were born. I still have my original copy and use it frequently. It was immediately very popular with the few Ancient coin collectors I knew. And rightly so, for it possessed many virtues: It was small enough and sufficiently robust enough to be carried on one’s person or in a coin folder, so that it could be easily referenced at a coin show or during discussions. It was also cheap enough that even low ranking GIs (I was one) could afford a copy without cutting into the monthly laundry allowance. But it wasn’t just the physical attributes that made this little book so popular. Here, for the first time, was a handy reference that showed you how to easily READ the legends on Roman coins! Additionally, there was copious information that aided you in dating your coins. An added bonus were sections devoted to illustrations of the the various coin denominations, brief biographical summaries of Emperors and their families and listings of the variations of their titles …… and so on. I don’t remember what this book cost me in 1953 - probably about $5 - but it has been worth every cent! I highly recommend it to all collectors of Roman Imperial coins no matter what your level of expertise.
For the Flavian centric collector I have made this list of books that may be of interest - both numismatic and historical. The Coinage The Roman Imperial Coinage II Part 1 - Carradice and Buttrey Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum II - Mattingly Coinage and Finances in the Reign of Domitian - Ian Carradice Roman Silver Coins II - Seaby Roman Provincial Coinage II - Burnett, Amandry, Carradice The Metallurgy of Roman silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan - Butcher and Ponting Primary Sources Suetonius: The Flavian Emperors - Historical commentary and Translation by Brian Jones and Robert Milns Tacitus The Histories - Translated by Kenneth Wellesley Tacitus Agricola and Germany - Translated by A. R. Birley Tacitus Agricola - Commentary by R. M. Ogilvie and I. A. Richmond Pliny Natural History - Translated by H. Rackham (Loeb) Juvenal The Sixteen satires - Translated by Peter Green Martial Epigrams - Translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey (Loeb) Josephus The Jewish War - Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (Loeb) The Emperors The Year of the Four Emperors - Kenneth Wellesley Vespasian - Barbara Levick Vespasian and the Partes Flavianae - John Nicols The Emperor Titus - Brian Jones The Emperor Domitian - Brian Jones Domitian: Tragic Tyrant - Pat Southern From Tiberius to the Antonines - Albino Garzetti The Jewish War and Flavius Josephus A History of The Jewish War - Steve Mason The Jews Against Rome - Susan Sorek The Jewish Revolt Against Rome - Popovic (Ed.) Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome 66-73 - Neil Faulkner Jerusalem Under Siege - Jonathan J. Price The Roman Siege of Jerusalem - Rupert Furneaux Masada - Yigael Yadin Rome and Jerusalem - Martin Goodman Flavius Josephus and Flavian Rome - Edmondson, Mason, & Rives Josephus in Galilee and Rome - Shaye J. D. Cohen Josephus - Tessa Rajak Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome - Per Bilde Josephus: The man and the Historian - H. St. J. Thackeray Jerusalem's Traitor - Desmond Seward Flavius Josephus - Mireille Hadas-Lebel A Jew Among Romans - Frederic Raphael Agricola Agricola and the Conquest of the North - W. S. Hanson Agricola and Roman Britain - A. R. Burn A Battle Lost: Romans and Caledonians at Mons Graupius - Gordon Maxwell The Roman Conquest of Scotland: The Battle of Mons Graupius AD 84 - James E. Fraser Mons Graupius AD 83 - Duncan Campbell Roman Scotland - David Breeze The Romans in Scotland - Gordon Maxwell Rome's First Frontier: The Flavian Occupation of Northern Scotland - D.J. Woolliscroft and B. Hoffmann Pompeii and Herculaneum The Natural History of Pompeii - Jashemski and Meyer Herculaneum - Andrew Wallace-Hadrill Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum - Andrew Wallace-Hadrill The Complete Pompeii - Joanne Berry Pompeii - L. Richardson, Jr. Pompeii - Zanker The Fires of Vesuvius - Mary Beard Vesuvius AD 79 - E. De Carolis and G. Patricelli Romans on the Bay of Naples - John H. D' Arms Ghosts of Vesuvius - Charles Pellegrino Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure - Joseph Jay Deiss Roman Pompeii: Space and Society - Ray Laurence Pompeii - Paul Wilkinson The Colosseum The Colosseum - Ada Gabucci, Editor The Colosseum - Hopkins and Beard Arena: The Story of the Colosseum - John Pearson General works Emperors and architecture: A Study of Flavian Rome - R. H. Darwall-smith Flavian Rome - A. J. Boyle and W. J. Dominik The Oxford Classical Dictionary - Hornblower and Spawforth The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World - Talbert A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome - L. Richardson A Dictionary of Roman Coins - John Melville Jones
