NumisMattic2200 Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 Have some spare Xmas money and am thinking of getting Sear - but very expensive, not sure which one/s are most useful! Any advice about this, or advice on which are the best Roman coins books for identifying them?... Thanks, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 23, 2009 Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 The Roman Imperial Coinage by Harold Mattingley and Edward A. Sydenham are good but again, they are not cheap...these are the books used so often for catalog reference RIC#...Its a 10 Volume work, which volume you get depends on what coinage you are most interested in. RCV (Roman Coins and their Values) by D. Sears is, as you say, a good reference. You can get the 1988 (4th) edition which, IMO, is still good, it is in 1 volume and you can probably find it used and while values aren't correct, its still a good reference. The Millennium Edition is in III volumes and will cost you. I do not know of a useful reference for Roman Coins that is cheap unless you can find them used by someone wanting to get rid of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougsmit Posted December 24, 2009 Report Share Posted December 24, 2009 Van Meter If Sear is too expensive, I'd try Van Meter. I posted the above review a few years ago. If you want a book to learn about the hobby, that is great. If you just want to ID coins, there are many online resources that will save you thousands of dollars. Start here: http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coinlinks.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 24, 2009 Report Share Posted December 24, 2009 Helvetica's spread sheets are certainly one of the best online sources. Not to mention http://www.wildwinds.com if you didnt know already. More good links IMO. http://www.romancoin.info/ http://dougsmith.ancients.info/abb.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benz Gemz Posted December 24, 2009 Report Share Posted December 24, 2009 A decent 1 volume reference with great photos is ERIC, the Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins by Rasiel Suarez. I think his site is sold out, but you may find a copy for around $80 or so. Not as inexpensive as Van Meter (which is a good starting point for your first book) but more comprehensive. Also don't overlook the 1988 edition of Sear RCV, single volume and still useful. For silver, Roman Silver Coins is good, but it is limited to silver. Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted December 25, 2009 Report Share Posted December 25, 2009 Van Meter If Sear is too expensive, I'd try Van Meter. I posted the above review a few years ago. If you want a book to learn about the hobby, that is great. If you just want to ID coins, there are many online resources that will save you thousands of dollars. Start here: http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coinlinks.htm I used Van Meter until I bought the RIC set. I still refer to Van Meter when I have a quick question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarotta Posted December 25, 2009 Report Share Posted December 25, 2009 Coinage and History of the Roman Empire by David L. Vagi is a two-volume work that delivers Rome on a silver platter. Entering any new collecting area requires an intellectual effort of reading and learning. That is part of the fun; but at some level, the fun becomes too much work. This new book makes the work achievable, reducing the task load, and delivering tools to take yourself where you want to go. The book was issued in 1999. Then, it was $100 per volume. You can still find it used for about $60 or $70 per book, but sellers with unused copies are asking over $300. Volume 2 of this work is a catalog and price guide. As an American, Vagi understands that price depends on grade. Three grades appear for each coin: Fine, Very Fine, and Extremely Fine. From my review for CoinNewbies here. Charlie Davis is a well known bookseller who particates as a VCoins seller. He has the older 5-volume set for sale now for $175 (or € 121.81 or £ 109.79) on his website here. You might also query the other booksellers, Kolbe, Burns, Lake. You find them mentioned often on the E-Sylum list with links to their current auctions and homepages. Maybe I am uninformed, but it seems to me that Sear is a standard item and not that hard to find. Of course, there is the argument from the Tool Guys that when you need a tool, you buy the best one now, rather than a cheaper make-do that you will only have to replace. It just depends on your real needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NumisMattic2200 Posted December 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 26, 2009 Thanks for the advice guys - everyone seems to praise the 88 version of RIC?! Hmm I may have over 100 quid, so maybe I'll just get the whole set of 5 (?!!) to go with the 4 Krause's (1600-now) that are on their way from America. Thanks mmarotta for the link, I didn't know you could get all of those for 109 GBP!! Can we say, W00T! ...sooo, if I did get the older version, how do they compare information-wise? Giving that I don't care too much about price 'accuracy' in any case?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougsmit Posted December 26, 2009 Report Share Posted December 26, 2009 Please note that the 5 volume Roman Silver Coins (RSC) set is not a version of the ten volume Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC) set and is separate still from the recent Sear "...and their Values" set that has not yet released their final volumes. The 5 volume RSC includes no bronze coins so I do not recommend them as an only book unless you only plan to collect silver coins. If $1000+ is not a problem, get RIC and plan to spend over 1000 hours learning to use the set. If you don't mind Sear not having reached the fourth century yet (many beginners collect mostly fourth century), Sear may be a decent set. If price is a matter of concern, Van Meter is the answer. A decent numismatic library including the standard references and a reasonable selection of specialized works is not a small matter. Buy a big bookshelf! You may not want to hear it but after collecting ancient coins for 45 years, my book sets take over 10 feet of shelf space plus several boxes of old auction catalogs currently in the attic. I own a small fraction of what I would need to be considered well equipped in the field. Collectors of numismatic books have many more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 You can certainly get by with few books. The more coins who examine the better off you will be. I used to spend hours just browsing through CoinArchives (RIP). I prefer to buy the coins and less books. If I find good deals I will buy certain volumes but if it is between coin and book, coin will always win out...and I have seldom had a problem Identifying a Roman coin with what I have or what I find on the web. If I cant then there is usually a person who can help out on a forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarotta Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 You can certainly get by with few books. The more coins who examine the better off you will be. I used to spend hours just browsing through CoinArchives (RIP). I prefer to buy the coins and less books. If I find good deals I will buy certain volumes but if it is between coin and book, coin will always win out...and I have seldom had a problem Identifying a Roman coin with what I have or what I find on the web. If I cant then there is usually a person who can help out on a forum. I just checked CoinArchives and it is up and running. In fact, I found 75 hits for coins of Drusus. So is Wildwinds. And of course, there is VCoins. And they are all fine. But books are something special, Drusus. Even a magpie will pick up a shiny object. Without the history, the coins might as well be stones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 But books are something special, Drusus. Even a magpie will pick up a shiny object. Without the history, the coins might as well be stones. Certainly I get the history one way or the other In the end, as the venerable Paul Barford likes to say...alas I am, at heart, a 'coin fondler' not a book collector. If I can get the information any other way than spending money on the book, I will do it. That is not to say that I do not have a small collection of books and catalogs I have bought through the years. I have been collecting for several decades and I feel well equipped as a collector which is what I am...Its a hobby for me. The RIP for CA is because its full features have been removed unless one wishes to pay 600 bucks a year. It is still possible to find something you are looking for if it has recently been sold (within the last 6 months). So as a free resource it is GREATLY diminished from what it was and compared to the others listed here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougsmit Posted December 29, 2009 Report Share Posted December 29, 2009 There is a 'problem' with gathering information from the web based auction records. These sales tend to sell expensive coins. Take for example: acsearch bull horseman search We get three pages of mostly Greek silver that sells for more than any coin I ever hope to own. Mixed in is one extremely scarce variation on the common medieval Afghan bull/horseman type which is what I was interested in when I did the search. It differs from the common versions by the legends in a language few of us read. Where are the common types? I was seeking information on how to separate the various common ones but not one of them made acsearch since few of them bring big bucks. Many sold on eBay are misidentified so there is some risk in using that as an online resource. Basing study on catalog sales tends to make one think that most ancient coins are expensive and beautiful. I am not saying that there is not great information available online or that there are not books that are beyond worthless. There are in fact many other sites besides those mentioned that offer information - some on cheap coins. Perhaps eventually someone will post everything I want to know online but for now, I'll use both formats and hope for more and better in both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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