Comprehensive books about Roman coins?

[Number Six]

Hello, I know very little about Roman coins and I wondered if there are any comprehensive and authoritative books about Roman coins that are commonly referred to by scholarly essays. I know some very old ones, but I'm clueless about recent ones. Given the width of the field, and given it gathers also the interest of non specialists, there are countless books around, which makes it difficult for me to find the good ones. I am interested on all periods from the first coinages up to Byzantium's 8th century. And no, I don't expect to find all that in one book

Thank you for the help.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Number Six

[Maty]

For the Roman Republic, the definitive book is Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage.

 

However, you'd do better looking for it in a library, as the last copy I saw selling on Amazon was going for somewhere north of $500.

 

I've always found this site a useful resource

 

http://www.romancoins.info/Content.html

[guy]

Hello, I know very little about Roman coins and I wondered if there are any comprehensive and authoritative books about Roman coins that are commonly referred to by scholarly essays.

First, welcome to UNRV.

 

Although most of us are not coin collectors (myself included!), I think it is important to study and appreciate numismatic material to gain a deeper inside into the daily life and economics of Ancient Rome.

 

Many of the great books on Ancient Roman numismatics are expensive and not always user friendly.

 

Doug Smith, an excellent teacher on Ancient numismatics, lists his favorite books here:

 

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html#cat

 

Here is respected numismatic author David Sear's recommendations:

 

http://www.davidrsear.com/academy/general_works.html

 

 

That said, there are so many excellent sites on Ancient numismatics on the web, why bother? For the novice as well as the more experienced numismatic student, Doug Smith's own web site is a place worth starting:

 

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/

 

Here is a web site that is helpful to any student of Ancient numismatics. I've frequently researched the site when writing about Ancient Roman numismatics:

 

http://wildwinds.com/coins/index.html

 

If you must spend money, however, a nice introduction is Wayne G. Sayles' Ancient Coin Collecting III : The Roman World--Politics and Propaganda.

 

Seriously, though, research the web at the above sites and other links listed on this subforum. Although I have found many books invaluable for my reasearch into Ancient numismatics, most the information can be found from the web in a sometimes easier-to-read and always free source.

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited August 12, 2013 by guy

[Number Six]

Thanks to both of you, I didn't know most of those websites (especially apprecciated the one with the list of books) and I was just finding out yesterday about Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage.

 

A book that is not listed above (I think) and that I have been using recently is M

Edited August 12, 2013 by Number Six

[guy]

 

A book that is not listed above (I think) and that I have been using recently is M