Coins Books

Just like the Whitman coin folders from when I was a child, good quality, fair price. Excellent option to hold a modest collection in the building stage, until you're ready to move your collection to a better quality folder such as Dansco.

It is sad that Amazon is not stocking this book by Dick Stout. I have been in the hobby of metal detecting and I challenge anyone to pick this book up some winter day and see if it doesn't drive you nuts because the ground is frozen! Well written, informative, and addicting. You will want to go out and metal detect once you read this book. This book was the reason I went down to a local park, Circa 1880, and dug Indian Head Pennies, Liberty Nickels, Old Wheats and some silver coins out of location that has been searched literally hundreds of times. Read and Heed!

A. K. Narain's book on Indo-Greek civilization is more of a compilation of several scholarly essays involving historical and archeological research on various Hellenic monarchies in what today would be modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India. An important contribution as narrative and archeological evidence of Greek culture in that region is scarce: our present information on Indo-Greek cultures being based primarily on numismatic evidence identifying kings and the length of their rule.

After Alexander's conquest of Persia, Seleucus and his immediate successors encouraged the immigration of Greeks and other western peoples into their new empire. The eastern provinces soon became independent monarchies ruled by Greek governors or mercenaries who were tempted both by the wealth of their province and their distance from Antioch. With the rise of the Parthians, these kingdoms became even more physically and culturally separated from Greece and eventually became absorbed into the regions and cultures they ruled. Located along the trade routes to India and China, these independent Greek monarchies (some no more than individual cities) became very properous and wealthy: over 20,000 pieces have been found at one sight alone. Their ethnically diverse inhabitants created a rich blend of western and eastern cultures combining Western Aristotelean thoughts with the spiritualism of Buddism and other Eastern religions. All if not most of these kingdoms became completely absorbed by their indigenous inhabitants by the late 1st century B.C.: the kingdoms in Bactria/Sogdiana were overrun by Huns and other nomadic groups from the Asian steppe while those in India were absorbed by their neighboring kingdoms. The book primarily covers Greek civilization in the Swat Valley along the Indus river and cities such as Taxila in modern Pakistan. Other articles cover archeological finds in the Greek city of Ai Khanoum in northern Afghanistan: the only Greek city found so far in that region. The book also covers a anthropological studies on the arrival of nomadic tribes from the steppe and their ensuing destruction of the Bactrian kingdoms. The majority of the essays in the book cover numismatic evidence and their identification of various Indo-Greek kings, their treasurers, etc.

I wouldn't recommend this book for the general reader due to the doctoral format of the articles compiled which can be quite technical and unengaging. Again, this book is a compilation of doctoral essays and not a linear chronological study of Hellenic civilization in the East. I found the book to have important information about a field of Hellenic studies that has been somewhat neglected for the last 30 or more years due to the political problems in that region (e.g. Afghanistan, Kashmir, etc.) The information in this book is quite valuable and makes it an important addition to any classical scholar's library. Again, I wouldn't recommend this work as an introductory text as its depth and scope would already require a rather advanced knowledge of the subject: particulary in the numismatic field. For a broader analysis of the Seleucid empire as a whole, I would recommend the hard-to-find "From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire (Hellenistic Culture and Society)" by Susan Sherwin White; not easily found and expensive, it is one of the few recent studies available on the Seleucid empire offering new and sound theories derived from textual and more recent archeological evidence.

I like this book and ilearned alot from it about collecting silverdollars and prices of coins. I also learned about errors and all the kinds of grading of coins and where they are made and stuff a must for coin collectors.

Each new edition of the Coin World Almanac is exciting reading and a very useful research tool. I use the Coin World Almanac to keep me up to date on changes since the last edition on such things as new legislation, new commemorative coins, new facts about paper currency and a multitude of many, many more numismatic subjects. I recommend it the highest rating because all I need and want to know about numismatics is contained in the Coin World Almanac. Additionally older editions of the Coin World Almanac have historical information which I can generally not elsewhere.

This book has many similarities to the Red Book, but it goes into considerably more detail, alerting the reader to the rarity of many coins in high grades and adding information on rare, unusual coins such as the unique Jefferson nickel of the wartime issues struck with its mintmark in the original location. Such details make this book far superior to the Red Book, lacking only the yearly update of prices to truly dominate the field. It also contains a section on patterns, entirely lacking in the Red Book. Comprehensiveness and good formatting earn this book its high rating, and easily justify it as a general reference despite it's out of date status.

These short stories from history as illustrated - in a sense lit up by coins struck over the past 2 thousand years. An exciting read.

This book gives excellent coverage of the general background knowledge of British and UK coinage in just the right amount of detail. There is so much that I have learned in addition to the basic mintage information. Other books don't really compare. The organization is excellent, the illustrations plentiful and the historical information significant and interesting. In addition there are "collecting hints" boxes by each issue that offer advice to collectors about what to look for in obtaining a specimen. The vintage photos of coins being minted are an added bonus, although the book could be printed on better quality paper considering that it is a hardback. The price seems quite high, but that may be because it is now out of print. That's my last complaint....why did it go out of print???? A new edition with more up-to-date prices would be great. But still, the information inside this is worth the five stars...it is a book that you can sit down and read, not just a "price list." Any collector of UK coins should have this ref in their library.

Beautiful Numismatic Survey

A Review of "Coins - Pleasures and Treasures" by John Porteous

John Porteous covers a lot of coin history with this book. The author selected the prime examples from each of the eras covered. There are 32 pages of color photographs and 100 black and white photographs. There is ample historic background material to give a significant context.

Copyright 1964
Reprinted 1967
Second Edition 1973

128 pages

Contents
1 - Coins of the Greeks
2 - Romans and Byzantines
3 - European Coinage in the Middle Ages
4 - The Renaissance and the Baroque
5 - Coinage Transformed

The subject selection is excellent and the photographs are outstanding.

I recommend this book as a good survey book on numismatics.

Beautiful Numismatic Survey

A Review of "Coins - Pleasures and Treasures" by John Porteous

John Porteous covers a lot of coin history with this book. The author selected the prime examples from each of the eras covered. There are 32 pages of color photographs and 100 black and white photographs. There is ample historic background material to give a significant context.

Copyright 1964
Reprinted 1967

128 pages

Contents
1 - Coins of the Greeks
2 - Romans and Byzantines
3 - European Coinage in the Middle Ages
4 - The Renaissance and the Baroque
5 - Coinage Transformed


The subject selection is excellent and the photographs are outstanding.

I recommend this book as a good survey book on numismatics.