Need advice on books for Ancients

Thanks for the link, I will check them out.

 

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All I see are dates, no cross-references. Maybe he left them out in the downloadable versions?

 

the ric are downloadable as well but prolly not legally

 

Need advice on books on ancient coins?

Here is some advice, get a second job they are generally far more expensive then the coins they cover.

 

That's in part why I don't mind buying them, I have found most of the books I buy maintain their value, above and beyond the value I get from the knowledge, just as we'll as the coins...

 

scribd is a great website

 

I have reviewed many basic ancient-coin books here:
http://esty.ancients.info/numis/learnmore.html
-- Warren

 

Its a huge subject Beef. "Ancient coin books" is unanswerable. Want recommendation for an inexpensive, single volume reference for roman coins? Sear 1988 is a good start imo. RSC I always thought fairly limiting, especially since so many collectors collect copper as well.

So, I would ask for specificity. I love talking about books and would love to help, but its akin to asking what is the best coin to buy? Kind of depends on what you are interested in. I have too disparate of interests, and too much in depth research of some esoteric fields, so I have around 700 books on coins, mainly ancients. However, someone just collecting Romans can get a very nice workable library with around six or seven books. "Greek" is the brutal category, since we use it to mean all western non-roman coins effectively.

 

Nice writeup Warren. I posted something similar on Moneta-l a decade ago. Please let me know if you are interested in expanding it to cover other series or wish to add other titles to it. If I were more into internet pages, I always thought an online version of something like Kroh would be fun to do.

 

not sure about this book its from 1959 any one got a opion on it Roman Coins - Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins - Klawans

 

Problem is I don't know what I want to collect yet. Being a copper geek I like some of the old large copper ancients, but I am trying to buy the book first Like I said, I don't mind spending money on books as I find most good reference material pays for itself.

Some good advice so far, I really appreciate the suggestions and help.

 

I feel you. Something about big old coppers are warm and attractive. Problem for us is every field has large coppers basically, from Roman sestertii and as, to ptolemaic greek, to roman provincial, to byzantine. All are loaded with coins you just may love.

Maybe cruise through a site like cngcoins and see what kinds of decent ancients are offered and what they go for. I would hate you spending money on roman imperial books when you end up in love with egyptian coins, or provincials, or syracuse, etc. I agree with you on the value of a good reference. However, a great reference on a field you do not collect does you no good.

Btw, there is another side of this coin as well. Not only do you need to know what book to buy, but how to buy it. Unfortunately most good ancient coin books are oop. So, knowing how to search for them is also a learning curve. I can help with that too, I am always seaching for books and perusing book auctions. I have found a few scarcish books for people here on CT before.

 

beef1020 => by far the "best method" to start-up with is to search around on a great and safe coin-site (eg. "vcoins" is an outstanding place to hunt for ancient coins) ... and then once you've found a handful of potential "first-purchases" you should start a thread and run a few by all of us here at CoinTalk

=> we love tossing-in our two cents and/or suggesting other coins to consider!! (there are several very knowledgeable members on this site that will quickly steer you away from heading down the wrong path) ...

... it is always a bit scary when you first start collecting ancients, for there are quite a few "fakes" out there and nothing takes the fun outta collecting ancients faster than buying a fake!!

So again, I suggest that you hunt in fairly safe waters and then post your potential purchases "before" pulling the trigger!!

I'm just sayin'

Good luck ... oh, but be careful because once you start, you'll be hooked!!

 

Have you looked in your public library? My city is not large and our library has several ancient-coin books worth reading. And, we have a university library with even more. Maybe your local coin dealer has one you could borrow.

 

Valentinian lives in a more enlightened area. My local library has almost nothing on ancient coins (they have Sayles volume one). I have faith that, if I donated a set of books, they would put them in the book sale. In this area 'history' means the Civil War to most people and the Revolution to most others. Books on ancient history that the library does have rarely get checked out so, if I were buying books for their clientele, I would not buy much on coins either.

Speaking of Libraries: Did you hear that a library branch opened in Texas that has no books? They have excellent Internet skills and lots of e-books to check out. Is this the direction we head?

 

I have a copy, but it's not much of a book for anything beyond very basic beginners.

 

I agree. Its a book that was probably pretty valuable pe, (pre-internet), but I would say Doug, Warren, and others have sites that should get you up to speed and past this book quickly.

 

yah, I think it is very sad ... I love "real books" ... but my wife is the avid reader in our house!!

... but she refuses to knuckle-under and buy an "electronic reader" (she realizes that there are probably advantages to this new technology, but she feels that a great part of reading books, is the book itself ... she loves the smell of books and the look of books and although she can read-through a novel in a day, all of her books still look brand new when she's finished reading them) ... she absolutuely "adores real books" ...

yup, I'm betting big cash that she would not be too impressed with this new library!!

You may have seen these before, but I think they are so cool (I snapped a couple of shots of a few antique first editions that I bought for my wife) ... pretty cool, eh?

 

Very cool books i love old books. I just sold a 4th edition book of mormon for 88 bucks on ebay a couple weeks ago that i payed $1 for. I have a very old john milton paradice lost.



And the roman book from 1959 i have the digiral book so ill be readibg iy anyways

 

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Boo...599&searchurl=an=david+sear&x=25&y=15

david sear 1988 $10

abebooks has a lot of nice used books and lots of ancient books