Now that I've limited my self to Roman Republic, Seleukids, and Carthage Coins....I'm looking to find out more info on RR books.
Roman Republic recommendations? Where should I start...where should I put my money?
I currently have
Roman Coins and their values Sear
Roman Silver coins Vol 1, Seaby
RR Moneyers and their coins 81-64bce
Thank you in advance for all suggestions, input, etc.
Cary Riggs
Sear's HCRI, as Doug suggested, is
very good.
RR
moneyers and their coins (either volume) is interesting and educational about Roman
history, but I cannot support the numismatic techniques used (especially the inconsistent use of
hoard evidence) and other very speculative means of arriving at dates (I posted my critical review, from the
Numismatic Chronicle 2012, on
Forvm). As a result, some dates are necessarily wrong and others are wild guesses. But if this doesn't bother you, it's a nice read.
RSC1, written by H.A.
Seaby is also
very good. It's better than Sear's handbook, because it lists all the
types and it also contains hundreds of potted histories of the
types. I've issues with the
Sear handbook (RCTV). It misses out large areas of the silver coinage completely, and what it gains, in terms of bronzes, are badly treated. Frankly, if you own
RSC1, and are interested in the
Roman Republic, then
Sear RCTV can be thrown out - it adds nothing at all.
If you want a decent overview of RR coinage, you could do worse than add the two
RBW collection catalogues, NAC61 and NAC63. These, together, treat the bronze coinage better than Crawford's own
catalogue, illustrate far more
types, and is vastly superior to Sear's RCTV as a reference
work for coins in all metals.
Crawford: noted the views of cartago above. I would however note that
Crawford writes in an extremely condensed manner. The flip-side of this is that you get a lot of bang for your
buck as it were - there is a simply vast quantity of information if you care to look for it. You might buy it now and hardly understand it but in 20 years it makes a lot more sense.
If you like old books, then why not add Grueber's british museum
catalogue to the list? It has the advantage of treating the stories behind the coins better than
Crawford. And, perhaps even better, less expensive and an easier read is Smyth's 1856
catalogue of the Duke of
Northumberland collection. Widely available in the original hardback, it does nothing except tell the stories behind the coin
types, and it does it very well indeed, and very entertainingly too. Also, on the old book theme, why not add a few volumes of Loeb's Livy. Beatifully bound and a pleasure to read with poetic English, and intelligent notes.
