"Early World Coins & Early
Weight Standards" by
Robert Tye, York, 2009.
My copy of this book arrived and I have spent the last few days enjoying it. I recommend it highly to anyone who collects Early World Coins and anyone who is willing to admit that there are coins worth studying that are neither Greek
nor Roman.
I am a coin photographer. The book has one excellent photograph on the cover and not a single one inside. The author states that for many coins covered by the book that line drawings are better. He's right! The book contains some reasonable
quality line drawings of
ancient coins salvaged from old books and very high
quality drawings of
medieval Asian coins drawn by the author. Considering the state of striking of many of these issues, line drawings are much more clear than any photo. The coins are organized and numbered in a
catalog with rather little information on the entries but includes all the most common coins one is likely to see from the periods covered. The periods covered vary as to date since the term 'Early' as opposed to 'Modern' did not change over simultaneously around the world. The
catalog seems a
bit skimpy at just 59 pages but is extremely useful when it
comes to identifying common coins.
At the end of the
catalog, the book changes gears from
good to great as the format changes to text discussions of coin
types that defined the periods in which they were issued. Emphasis is placed on common coins that supported commerce in their regions rather than
rarities that seem to attract the attention of many authors. The
catalog lists 1248 coin
types (I would have omitted the ancients altogether and allowed more space to the later material which is obviously the author's
area of expertise). Out of these, a collector might expect to find at least a thousand without looking too hard and those coins would form a great
collection. The text section discusses all the who, where, when and why aspects of the major coinage groups and compensates completely for any brevity you might notice in the
catalog section.
The book ends with a discussion of 'Early
Weight Standards' (note the title of the book) which links the various coin issuing authorities with each other and world economy. If you ever wondered why so many coins seem to weigh 3-4g. this section will be fascinating. Anyone who buys the book and fails to read the last
part really missed out on the meat.
Robert Tye shows a great ability to make clear subjects that could be considered confusing whether he is using
his well crafted words or
his exceptional line drawings. The book is certainly one to be read cover to cover but will also serve as a crutch in identifying many coins that are more than a little confusing, especially to Western collectors.
Buy it. If you are a dealer in coins or coin books, sell it (if you can). This book deserves wide distribution.