Anthony is a book with a special place in my collecting life. It is unusual compared to most books on
ancient coins by NOT being a
catalog useful in identifying
types and assigning values but by explaining why you might care about collecting
ancient coins. I suppose you need
catalog books allowing you to know what is out there worth collecting (there are over a million different
ancient coins so don't set a goal of a
complete set) but I always felt the hobby would be better off if more beginners read Anthony first.
Another non-catalog I feel better for having owned is John Melville Jones'
Dictionary of Ancient Greek Coins (he has a
Roman volume, too, if you are ready to branch out). It is not a book to be read cover to cover in one sitting but a place to look up words that you need to understand to be a well informed collector.
I have not kept up on websites so can not tell you the best available. Of course I'd be happy if you visited mine and would suggest you start with my 'Vocabulary' series which highlights terms you need to know while trying not too be too painful in the process.
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/voc.htmlWhen I wrote those pages, I collected Ancient Greek and
Roman Coins nearly to the exclusion of many other interesting old coins. I have since spread out to include 'Early World Coins' as defined by
Robert Tye in
his book
Early World Coins and Early Weight Standards. 95% of these coins lack the 'art' appeal of
Greek coins so they may not interest you at all but I wish I
had spent more of my time in collecting (since the mid-60's) being a little more open to other things than the specialties I collected most of the time.
