Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 8243266, member: 26430&quot;]A fascinating question, glad you asked! I call myself a newbie still, but I do have an answer (two actually!):</p><p><br /></p><p>Two great volumes have tried to address that topic recently and both are well worth buying (the latter especially for an American, I enjoy it, though I haven&#039;t found any of my coins yet using it). (There are others in this genre, maybe others will point some out, but I think these are the best two having to do with ancient coin catalogs.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The late great <b>John Spring </b>thought the earliest was <b>1880</b>, but to everyone&#039;s great surprise, <b>David Fanning</b> discovered photographic ancient coin catalogs as early as <b>1869 </b>in the USA!</p><p><br /></p><p>Below are my notes on the two:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. <b>John Spring. 2009. <i>Ancient Coin Auction Catalogs: 1880-1980.</i> London: Spink.</b></p><blockquote><p>Excellent volume covering 886 (!) auction catalogs from the first European photographic auctions and for the next 100 years. (Some American auctions covered, but not as comprehensively as in Fanning, below.) </p><p>Superb indexes of important collections and sales.</p><p>Essential for anyone doing frequent provenance research or collecting ancient coin auction catalogs. He missed an occasional sale, but very good coverage of the important sales.</p><p>Remarkable density of biographical and historical material on the coin trade and its participants, both well-known, and quietly important.</p><p>Many consignors are named that were anonymous in the titles and often aren&#039;t easily found elsewhere. (Usually in brackets.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Obituary and biography of Spring (1934-2017) <a href="https://coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n27a04.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n27a04.html" rel="nofollow">published online by NBS</a> in <i>The E-Sylum</i>: Volume 20, Number 27, July 2, 2017, Article 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>Brousseau&#039;s (in French) includes an excellent &quot;Annexe&quot; of recent important auctions at the end of his review:</p><p>Brousseau, Louis. 2009. <i>Annex</i> n pp. 580-590: “Important Collection Auction Sales, 1980-2010” (French): <a href="https://www.academia.edu/461305/Review_of_John_Spring_Ancient_Coins_Auction_Catalogues_1880_1980_Londres_2009_" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/461305/Review_of_John_Spring_Ancient_Coins_Auction_Catalogues_1880_1980_Londres_2009_" rel="nofollow">https://www.academia.edu/461305/Review_of_John_Spring_Ancient_Coins_Auction_Catalogues_1880_1980_Londres_2009_</a></p><p>There are a few others for recent sales: [USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER] &#039;s <a href="http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/" rel="nofollow">auction catalogs page</a> is great, so is the FORUM<a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Important%20Collection%20Auctions" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Important%20Collection%20Auctions" rel="nofollow">Important Collection Auctions - NumisWiki</a> page.</p><p>And <a href="https://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/RRAuctions.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/RRAuctions.html" rel="nofollow">Andrew McCabe&#039;s site is great on Roman Republican</a> auctions (he has the image from Spring&#039;s book at the top of that page and uses Spring numbers):</p><p><br /></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>2.<b> Fanning, David P (2020) <a href="https://archive.org/details/AncientCoinsInEarlyAmericanAuctions/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/AncientCoinsInEarlyAmericanAuctions/" rel="nofollow"><i>Ancient Coins in Early American Auctions, 1869-1939</i></a>. Gahanna, OH: Kolbe &amp; Fanning.</b></p><blockquote><p>Another outstanding book. Covering all kinds of important information about the early U.S. coin market, its important dealers, and technologies of illustration and publication.</p><p>Summary on <a href="https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n38a02.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n38a02.html" rel="nofollow">Numismatic Bibliomania Site here</a>.</p><p><b>Available free online</b> on archive at the link above -- but if you order a hard copy&nbsp; from Kolbe &amp; Fanning (which I find easier to use for some purposes), you can request a signed copy! Well worth it to me.</p><p>Many fewer auctions covered than Spring (only 95 total I believe), but including at least one reproduction of the photographic plates from each, which greatly improves its value.</p><p>Particular historical detail on every important early American coin dealer who dealt in ancients.</p><p>Several nice appendixes on auxiliary topics of interest.</p><p>There is an interesting 60+ min video presentation he gave at the &quot;2020 Newman Numismatic Portal Symposium, held virtually, August 28-30, 2020,&quot; <a href="https://archive.org/details/17DavidFanning" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/17DavidFanning" rel="nofollow">available via Archive</a>.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p><br /></p></blockquote><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in