The Celator Magazine

Let me start by saying I miss this magazine. I started it is 1999 and am in the process of rereading the issues. I will say that I get more from them today, 15 years of learning helps) then I did when I first got them. I have been interested in finding the early issues 1987-1999. I also was wondering about a list of authors and articles as many authors published articles along certain themes over several years. On the Celator website I found a from 1987-1998. I was wondering if anyone had created a reference list for 1999 to 2013.

I was also wondering about how Kerry was doing and I see that he is a board member for ACCG so I guess to is doing fairly well.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Welcome, @Postumus!

I have only one Celator issue, purchased for a certain article. I loved reading the whole thing. Websites and readily available digital information is nice but there is something very satisfying about a real magazine or book.

As for Kerry, he's with CNG now . http://www.cngcoins.com/About CNG.aspx

 

You can find old issues on Vcoins.

https://www.vcoins.com/en/Search.as...cords=100&SearchOnSale=False&Unassigned=False

I miss the magazine too, was one of my favorites that came in.

 

I bought an entire run of them in January for less than $300 in the Kolbe Fanning auction. I supposedly have an index that came with them but I haven't found it yet. I'd recommend you reach out to Kerry as I'm fairly certain he would have one.

You can find back issues on VCoins and Abebooks, perhaps eBay sometimes too.

 

At one time I had every issue of the Celator, even the early issues in newspaper format, but sold them all to John Jencek many years ago. But I still have a few copies of the April, 1998 issue, which includes an article I wrote...

 

What ever happened to John Jencek? I knew he was supposedly moving to Europe but his website has been all but dormant for well over a year and his normal table was occupied by an imposter at NYINC. I only bought one coin from him (nice coin though!), but I regularly attended the San Francisco Historical Bourse that he ran for years. He was a really nice guy and even more importantly, really engaged.

We've unfortunately lost several really active dealers in the past few years and I get the feeling he's out of the business all together.

 

I hope that's not the case! He was very personable and helpful when I met him at ANA WFOM a couple of years ago. I've bought a few coins in his auctions and frequently his website hoping to find it active again.

 

I once was a fan of the Celator and had several articles published in it. Perhaps that was why I lost interest and dropped my subscription. More and more of the articles were weak and amateurish (like mine). They did not pay for articles but sometimes sent a couple extra copies of the issues in which I had an article. When I sold off my copies, I kept only the duplicates with my pieces. I believe that the Internet killed off the concept of a print magazine. The Celator wanted money for books but the Internet was filled with free information just as good and much more varied. What seemed great on newsprint in the late 80's and interesting on glossy paper in the 90's seemed unnecessary and outmoded in the 2000's. There were a few photos of interest but as things online blossomed with really good images, the desire for paying the price of postage and paper faded. I am not sure I see how a print magazine on ancient coins could survive today. Perhaps it is sad but it is a lot like the hard fact that my film cameras (35mm to 8x10 cut film in my case) are 'collectibles' now. When I want a photo of something, I use digital. Finding film to fit big cameras is hard today; finding the money to pay for it is harder. Probably there are a hundred other things from the good old days that we can miss in the same way I miss the thrill I felt when the postman brought a newsprint Celator and a couple poorly illustrated coin price lists. On the other hand I can read all the information in the hundreds of CNG sales online including the one that closes next week. Do I wish I were still dependent of that postman's arrival for coin news? No way!

 

I had been thinking about the Celator recently, but also numismatic societies like the ANA which publishes magazines (and smaller groups like the North Carolina Numismatic Association which comes out with a small quarterly publication). What about an Ancient and Medieval Numismatic Society? Is there one currently out there? I'm aware of the Classical and medieval Numismatic Soxiety, but their website hasn't been updated since 2012. There are local groups like the one out of Washington and Chicago, but they seem to cater to a local audience. The ancient Coin Collectors Guild are more political lobbyists than a member run society - don't get me wrong, I support them, but I'd be more, but I'm looking for something with more member interaction.

Anyway, it seems interest in Ancients is alive and well if we are to judge by participation here on Cointalk, but I'm not aware of any actual organized society. Do you all know of a group I'm missing?

 

I love the idea of groups like the DC Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington because of the one on one contact it allows but even in its heyday we had the problem of so many specialists and so little overlap. We had our Late Roman man and our Marcus Aurelius man. Our Greek silver specialist and our Athens only collector at least overlapped. Our sports specialist had a nice Caracalla with Circus Maximus aureus but the only other Severan person was me in the Eastern denarii. We enjoyed talking but to make really good contact matches I had to write letters to the United Kingdom and wait for the Internet to make world wide communications as we know them today. People who put the work into a magazine or online 'club' have to be very generous for little return. I have a box with old samples of several magazines with articles of varying degrees of quality. Few lasted for long; the Celator was exceptional. Today, I see the best answer to what we need to be what we have here on Coin Talk. It is not exactly free but Supporter status is voluntary. I hope enough of us are supporting it since I prefer it to the monthly arrival of a magazine covering 905 subjects I either could not understand or could have written (middle ground articles were scarce). Do you want a new magazine like the old Celator? How badly? It looks like an opportunity for a lot of work for little return either in money or praise.

 

I do agree that coin forums do seem to fill that void, but as TIF said above, there is something satisfying about holding and reading something physical. Perhaps I'm daydreaming and sad I missed out on the Celator and other groups. But if there are no larger societies or clubs, I wonder if the interest would be there for one. There may be little return, but I would think it would start as an act of love anyway...

 

Didn't there used to be an ancient coin podcast? I think something like that is far more likely to have legs than a print magazine today.

 

Wouldn't this apply to books as well as magazines? Is the adage 'books before coins' now outmoded just because we have the internet? Hardly.

What of all the information on the internet that's literally disappeared? Books don't disappear as easily as web sites. You won't ever get a 404 error looking things up in the index of a book.

IMO books and magazines are highly undervalued these days. Maybe in a few more years, people will start realizing that having information only in online form is not ideal.

Here's where I think the real value of the internet is, and why CT is so great. Even with a magazine like the Celator, how many articles per month are relevant to someone who collects (just picking something at random) eastern denarii of Septimus Severus?

 

What I liked about Celator was even if I didn't "specialize" in one area, I could at least learn or be made aware of a little specialized area. And thats what I miss about it. I pretty much read it article to article. I always looked forward to it.

I see the stupidest magazines that exist on Worldmags, a magazine site, and often wonder how that a magazine with such a niche area, gets made, yet I think there is more ancient collectors then some other magazines that exist and we have nothing but a few articles thrown in Coinworld or Numismatist.

 

Back when we were all much younger (or non-existent?!) in the late 80's, I formed a local ancient coin group in Sacramento, CA. The meetings never exceeded 10-12 attendees, but we displayed new and old acquisitions, reviewed literature (we had one published author in the club) and had a member presentation each week. Then it was time for wine and snacks. Everyone's areas of interest were expanded and it was a wonderful social event as well. The group lasted for 10 years. God, I miss those days...

 

Just found my Celator magazines starting Vol. 8 #3 March 1994 to Vol. 13 #11 2000
have some from 2002, 2003, 2005. Miss that Magazine and Moneta, whatever happened with Nomisma, for Byzantine coins?

 

No need to miss Moneta, the online list. I still get the weekly digest posts. Not much there though.

 

I have always been a big fan of The Celator, and just recently acquired a complete set of The Best of Celator in a very nice custom binder. Except for a little worn spot on the spin gold design, everything is in mint condition, especially the magazines - a nice addition to my library for $25.

 

Talk about old hard copy ancient coin publications, I still have a few of "The Voice of the Turtle."

 

I liked the regular columns in The Celator, such as "Art and the Market," "Profiles in Numismatics," "Through the Looking Glass" by Wayne Sayles, and "Coins of the Bible," by David Hendin.