My favorite book of all time was "A Dictionary of Roman Coins" by Seth Stevenson. It was first published in 1889, when I was a boy of 10. I read that thing every night for years, and I still find new and interesting information every time I open it today.
Two points that may be of interest, since you are such a fan of Stevenson's Dictionary!
First, though published in 1889 as you say, the greater
part of this book, pp. 1-829, was actually not only written, but printed too, before Stevenson's death on 22
Dec. 1853.
Thirty-five years were to elapse before the remainder of the book, pp. 830-929, could be completed by F.W. Madden, then printed, added to the pages already printed before 1853, and finally published in 1889. So most of the book, up to p. 829, reflects the state of knowledge of c. 1850, not of 1889.
Second, one of Stevenson's greater services to the modern collector, who probably cannot read academic Latin, was to provide English translations of many shorter and longer passages in Eckhel's great Doctrina Numorum,
his 8-volume treatise on
ancient coins, published in 1792-8 and reprinted in 1828. Whatever
his topic,
Stevenson always looked up Eckhel's opinion, and often quoted
his exact words, translated into English. Without
Stevenson, it would be very difficult for most modern collectors to obtain any access at all to Eckhel's wonderful
work.
I recommended that the serious student of
Roman coins should learn
German and
French first, but certainly there are many advantages to learning Latin also, not the least of which is to gain access to the many works of numismatic scholarship that were written in Latin up to c. 1800, especially Eckhel's invaluable Doctrina.
