A thread for posting photos of your numismatic library

[DonnaML]

I don't believe we've had a general "post your coin bookshelves" thread here since last year, so I thought I'd give people the opportunity to do that. (I was inspired by a recent thread on that subject over at Coin Talk, which I do still check once a week or so.)

The substantial majority of my numismatic library these days consists of links to online copies of relevant books and articles, and of pdf files I've downloaded to my hard drive.  I'm sure that's true of many of you. But I do still have, and occasionally buy, quite a few hard copies -- especially of books that aren't available online -- and sometimes find them easier to consult in my hands than on my computer.

These two shelves contain almost all of my books on ancient Roman Republican, Imperial, and Provincial coins (including quite a few on Roman Alexandrian coins alone, towards the right on the top shelf), as well as a couple of books on ancient Greek coins. Certainly it's nowhere near as many as some people have, judging from the Coin Talk thread, but I'm still happy I have them!

(The ones on the far right of the second shelf mostly have nothing to do with ancient coins, although the first two, concerning "medals," do discuss them at length. They're "antiquarian" books primarily about English coins.)

I think the resolution is high enough that it's possible to read all or most of the titles if one enlarges the photo.

Here are some photos of other numismatic books.

Shelves of English and other world coin books, beginning with those same antiquarian books:




Books about British historical and commemorative medals and other exonumia. The one on the far left is an original copy of James Mudie's book on his medal series concerning the Napoleonic Wars, published in 1820. 

Books about other historical and commemorative medals, mostly French, including Napoleonic medals, "art" medals, medals of Louis XIV, etc. I also have a couple of large volumes on Renaissance medals, which I keep elsewhere with my art books. In other words, with books about other art that I'll never be able to afford to buy!

Most of the well-known books on Napoleonic and other French medals that I don't own, particularly the ones published in the 19th and early 20th centuries, are available online, primarily through gallica.bnf.fr.

[sand]

@DonnaML Nice coin books.

I like seeing other coin collectors's coin books. It gives insight, into the collector's interests. It's similar to seeing the collector's entire coin collection. Also, sometimes I'll see a book, which I don't have, and then I'll investigate, to see if the book is interesting or useful. Also, I like it, when I see that someone, has some of the same books, that I have. It sort of confirms to me, that I have the "right books", as Will Hunting would say. Also, if I see that, many collectors own the same book, then it leads me to believe, that it may be a good book. I have some PDF books, and some PDF articles, and I use ACsearch a lot, and I search Nvmis Forvms, CoinTalk, and Forvm Ancient Coins for information. But, I also like paper coin books. Sometimes, I'll sit on my living room sofa, and read a coin book. And, books are helpful, for looking up information about particular coins, and information about general trends of the coins of various peoples, and information about the people who created the coins, and the history of the peoples who created the coins. And, I just like paper books, in general. Here's my numismatic library.

On the 1st shelf, the left most book is almost invisible, because of shadows, and it has no title on the spine anyway. It is "Ancient Greek Bronze Coins : European Mints" by Lindgren. Also on the 1st shelf, the 2nd and 3rd books from the left are SNG Kayhan parts 1 and 2. Also on the 1st shelf, the thin orange book is "Early Greek Coins From The Collection Of Jonathan P. Rosen" by Waggoner. Also on the 1st shelf, the blue book with a globe at the top of the spine, is "Collecting Ancient Greek Coins" by Rynearson. Also on the 1st shelf, the 2 right most books are "Byzantine Coins" by Grierson and "Late Byzantine Coins" by Lianta. On the 3rd shelf, the gray book is "Ancient Jewish Coinage : Volume 1" by Meshorer, the book to the right of "Ancient British Coins" is "The Iconography Of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage" by Gannon, the 3rd book from the right is "Coins Of The Crusader States" 2nd edition by Malloy, Preston, and Seltman, the 2nd book from the right is "English Coinage" by Sutherland, and the right most book is "Coins Of England And The United Kingdom" the 1998 edition by Spink. On the 4th shelf, the thin red book is "Byzantine Coins" by Harlan J. Berk, which is a December 7, 1989 Berk auction catalog with a nice little introduction to Byzantine coins at the beginning. Also on the 4th shelf, the blue book to the right of the thin red book, is "Coinage Of The Byzantine Empire" by Goodacre, and the yellow book with yellow tape is "The Coin Atlas" by Cribb, Cook, and Carradice.

Edited June 13, 2023 by sand

[DonnaML]

16 minutes ago, sand said:

@DonnaML Nice coin books.

I like seeing other coin collectors's coin books. It gives insight, into the collector's interests. It's similar to seeing the collector's entire coin collection. Also, sometimes I'll see a book, which I don't have, and then I'll investigate, to see if the book is interesting or useful. I have some PDF books, and some PDF articles, and I use ACsearch a lot, and I search Nvmis Forvms, CoinTalk, and Forvm Ancient Coins for information. But, I also like paper coin books. Sometimes, I'll sit on my living room sofa, and read a coin book. And, books are helpful, for looking up information about particular coins, and information about general trends of the coins of various peoples, and information about the people who created the coins, and the history of the peoples who created the coins. And, I just like paper books, in general. Here's my numismatic library.

On the 1st shelf, the left most book is almost invisible, because of shadows, and it has no title on the spine anyway. It is "Ancient Greek Bronze Coins : European Mints" by Lindgren. Also on the 1st shelf, the 2nd and 3rd books from the left are SNG Kayhan parts 1 and 2. Also on the 1st shelf, the thin orange book is "Early Greek Coins From The Collection Of Jonathan P. Rosen" by Waggoner. Also on the 1st shelf, the blue book with a globe at the top of the spine, is "Collecting Ancient Greek Coins" by Rynearson. Also on the 1st shelf, the 2 right most books are "Byzantine Coins" by Grierson and "Late Byzantine Coins" by Lianta. On the 3rd shelf, the gray book is "Ancient Jewish Coinage : Volume 1" by Meshorer, the 3rd book from the right is "Coins Of The Crusader States" 2nd edition by Malloy, Preston, and Seltman, the 2nd book from the right is "English Coinage" by Sutherland, and the right most book is "Coins Of England And The United Kingdom" the 1998 edition by Spink. On the 4th shelf, the thin red book is "Byzantine Coins" by Harlan J. Berk, which is a December 7, 1989 Berk auction catalog with a nice little introduction to Byzantine coins at the beginning. Also on the 4th shelf, the blue book to the right of the thin red book, is "Coinage Of The Byzantine Empire" by Goodacre, and the yellow book with yellow tape is "The Coin Atlas" by Cribb, Cook, and Carradice.

A very impressive collection! Like you, I enjoy seeing other people's coin books.

Edited June 13, 2023 by DonnaML

[sand]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:52 PM, DonnaML said:

I don't believe we've had a general "post your coin bookshelves" thread here since last year...

Was last year's thread on Nvmis Forvms? Did it involve photos of peoples's bookshelves? I tried to find it on Nvmis Forvms, but I didn't find it. Could last year's thread, have been on CoinTalk?

Edited June 14, 2023 by sand

[DonnaML]

2 hours ago, sand said:

Was last year's thread on Nvmis Forvms? Did it involve photos of peoples's bookshelves? I tried to find it on Nvmis Forvms, but I didn't find it. Could last year's thread, have been on CoinTalk?

Quite possibly. Or perhaps the year before. Sorry!

[sand]

5 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Quite possibly. Or perhaps the year before. Sorry!

That's okay. I searched CoinTalk, for the keywords "library" and "books" in the thread title. I found the following 2 threads, which seem to have a lot of photos of persons's libraries. 1 is from April 2020, and the other is from May 2019. Perhaps you were thinking of 1 of the following 2 threads.

April 2020 CoinTalk thread (55 replies) : https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-books.358827/ 

May 2019 CoinTalk thread (26 replies) : https://www.cointalk.com/threads/show-us-your-library.339642/ 

I haven't yet looked slowly, through the above 2 threads, but I look forward to doing so.

However, 1 thread is 3 years old, and the other thread is 4 years old. Therefore, I like the idea, of having this new thread.

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by sand

[Broucheion]

Hi All,

There is also this recent CT thread from June 2023.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/show-us-your-ancient-coin-library-here-a-numismatic-literature-post.405857/

- Broucheion 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Broucheion

[DonnaML]

2 hours ago, Broucheion said:

Hi All,

There is also this recent CT thread from June 2023.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/show-us-your-ancient-coin-library-here-a-numismatic-literature-post.405857/

- Broucheion 

Yes, that's the recent CT thread that inspired me to start this one in the hope that some people here might be interested in something similar.

[Ursus]

Mine is not exactly a library – just a shelf or so of coin books, mostly non-digitized reference works and some basic reading, that is crammed in between the classical literature and medieval history books in the study where I otherwise keep my desk and work-related books.

 

[Phil Anthos]

I like this thread, and it's cool to see other collectors' libraries. 

I may have time to photograph my bookcases later, but for now I'll just post the relative pages from my Librarything account...

https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Enodia?tag=Numismatics&collection=-1 

~ Peter Hope 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Phil Anthos
atrocious spelling

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

Some of my books on history, theology, and numismatics (with Byzantine there isn’t always a distinction 😁). Everything is in a rough chronological order, sorted by generic theme as well. Most of my Byzantine, medieval, and ancient shelves are elsewhere, though. Next time I am there I will take some photographs. 

[akeady]

I recently posted on the CoinTalk version of this, but maybe I can rehash it 😄

First, though - I see that Cambridge are selling Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage as a PDF now - downloadable or read online:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/roman-republican-coinage/BF809A7DBDE86722B6783D20FD6EABFF

My own books...

I collect a bit of everything, but mainly RR coins.

Here are Crawford, Sydenham, RBW collection, a decent Italian reference, Kestner, some sylloges and NC 2022, plus a nice Zecchi cabinet for Italian coins and Papal medals.

Underneath that, one on Emporion coins, some metallurgical surveys, Carthaginian, some more RR, Byzantine and Greek, with a few catalogues and a Hiberno-Norse book for good measure.

Under that, some ANS journals, some random Roman and others, including Harl.

Italian Cast Coinage, Historia Nummorun Italy, British bronze coins, three volumes of books on sestertii with nice pictures, Monumental Coins, Papal medals, etc.

Mostly Krause, a few Numismatic Society of Ireland publications and some others.

Hoover's Handbook of Greek Coinage, the wonderful "Coinage in the X World" series and some other books.

Red Banti (RR coins), most of my Numismatic Chronicles - 2021 & 2022 are scattered elsewhere.

HCRI, Green Banti (Imperial coins), Hiberno-Norse coins in the British Museum (I recently accidentally bought another copy), RIC IV part 1 and the Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage.

Modern coins, Celtic coins, an interesting biographical deictionary of Irish and British numismatists, a book on St. Patrick's Coinage, etc.

Some festschrifts.

A couple more, plus some Greek.

Spring, Testimonia nummaria, Grueber, Admiral Smyth.

I can't add any more pics to this post - maybe I'll do a part II to finish it and bore everyone completely 😄

ATB,
Aidan.

[akeady]

Part II - "I've started, so I'll finish", as Magnus Magnusson used to say.

RIC - finally completed at NYINC in January with vol. V part 2.

Greek - Sear, Historia Nummorum, Lindgren - finally picked up vol. I in January too.

BMCRE, Sear RCV.

Greek coins...

Numismatic Society of Ireland Occasional Papers - we have an active Publications Editor now, at one time more than a decade went by between publications!, Koinon (I recently ordered volume V when I took this photo' and realised I didn't have it).

Random books - a nice odd volume of Cohen plus a couple of duplicates.

Arma et Nummi(Woytek - I need to learn German), RSC, Varbanov, a newish series from Cambridge, comprehensive Gunmoney die study, etc.

I'll spare you the catalogues - these were some books that came recently - Babelon, a couple of other RR books and two on Papal medals

Just today, I received a "Catalogue of Arpadian Coinage" as a birthday gift, so I'll need to look for some more Hungarian coins 😄   I have quite a few Eraviscan denarii and some denars, but this covers earlier denars.

ATB,
Aidan.

[DonnaML]

I am very impressed, @akeady! A couple of questions if I may, as a collector of Roman Republican coins myself. First, how often, if ever, do you consult Sydenham? I've never bought it, because nobody ever seems to cite to information in that book, and its dating scheme is so obsolete. (Grueber is 40 years older, with even more obsolete dates for many coins, and yet I still consult it often, largely for the detailed coin descriptions as well as  the very detailed historical, biographical, and bibliographic footnotes. Also, the plates are better in Vol. 3 than the ones in Crawford Vol. II, at least the ones in the Crawford reprint.) 

Second, I don't know much about the Banti RR volumes. How are they useful? Provenance research?

 

[akeady]

32 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

I am very impressed, @akeady! A couple of questions if I may, as a collector of Roman Republican coins myself. First, how often, if ever, do you consult Sydenham? I've never bought it, because nobody ever seems to cite to information in that book, and its dating scheme is so obsolete. (Grueber is 40 years older, with even more obsolete dates for many coins, and yet I still consult it often, largely for the detailed coin descriptions as well as  the very detailed historical, biographical, and bibliographic footnotes. Also, the plates are better in Vol. 3 than the ones in Crawford Vol. II, at least the ones in the Crawford reprint.) 

Second, I don't know much about the Banti RR volumes. How are they useful? Provenance research?

 

Hi @DonnaML, thanks.

I rarely refer to Sydenham now - I bought it before Crawford, so used it mostly before I knew better!   That said, it has good plates (I believe there's a reprint which has very poor plates) including two on different types of helmets and one on different earrings.   It also includes the Social War coins of the Marsic Confederation, not in Crawford. Grueber is generally much better for biographical, historical information.

I wonder what the plates in the new Cambridge PDF edition of Crawford are like?   I have two copies of Crawford - a 1974 one, but volume II consists only of a photocopy of the plates (I bought both volumes in Spink for £40) and a more recent edition where the plates aren't great, though it at least has the rest of volume II.

Banti is pretty useful for old provenances.   I found a 1913 provenance for my Sulla's Dream fourrée denarius, which was unknown to the seller (Roma 😛) and its previous owner.   I eventually got the Dupriez auction catalogue.   Other than that, I've only got a few coins that I've found in Banti, though I do look through the volumes often enough for acquisitions and potential acquisitions.   Maybe acsearch and the rather good coryssa.org will catch up with the old entries and make it obsolete.

ATB,
Aidan.

[Finn235]

Not even including catalogues I have a pretty expansive library 

 

😉

[ewomack]

My numismatic library has fluctuated wildly over the years. If I had saved all of the numismatic books I had ever owned, they would probably fill an entire bookshelf or more. But, as my tastes, goals, and pursuits changed, so did my books. Currently, my coin books sit scattered amongst books on countless other subjects, so I had to take them all off the shelves to photograph them together. They look pretty humble all in a little pile on the floor.

Edited June 17, 2023 by ewomack

[Deinomenid]

Moving house but here are some unshelved ones I'd grabbed as  generally more useful.

With apologies for Magna Graecia myopia.

[Steve]

WOW!! ... soooooooo many fricken cool bookshelves, stuffed full of soooooo many cool coin-books!!

=> hats-off to all of you!! (that's amazing librarian-man-ship)

Ummmm, I sold all of my old coin books to TIF a few years ago (my bad) 

... oh, but I did keep a few of my favs ... 

This lil' beauty will "never" be sold ... yes, I am a  HUGE David Sear groupie!! 

=> First Edition of his first book (signed, to "me" ... cause he loves me!!)

😉

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Steve

[Simon]

Im am not a tidy person. These top three shelves are coin related, the other shelves not shown are on Renaissance art and later. 

Today i recieved a long sought after book.  #44  out of 250, @TheTrachyEnjoyer has a copy as well. I was jealous until today. Its not easy to aquire.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Simon

[sand]

@Simon Congratulations on the Bendall PCPC book. You were exactly correct, when you said, that it's not easy to acquire. Only 250 copies in existence. I remember, when @TheTrachyEnjoyer acquired a copy. You're only the 2nd person I know, who has a copy. I've been searching and waiting for a copy, for at least 2 years. It's crazy, how such an important book, is so scarce. Perhaps the book is even more important, because Mr. Bendall's coin collection was stolen in 2018. I don't think those coins have ever been seen again. Therefore, some of those coins may only exist, in the Bendall PCPC book, although I'm not sure which ones. See my edit below. You would think, that someone would reprint the book. I wonder who owns the copyright. I wonder if the copyright has expired. The book was published in 1988. Unfortunately, Mr. Bendall passed away in 2019, at age 81, a year after his coin collection was stolen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Bendall 

https://www.swlondoner.co.uk/news/28102021-on-the-run-burglar-sentenced-for-stealing-antique-coins 

EDIT : I just noticed the following, in the Wikipedia article : "He sold part of his collection to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in 1999, which made up the core of Eleni Lianta’s Late Byzantine Coins 1204-1453 in the Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford (2009)." Therefore, perhaps, at least some of the coins in the Bendall PCPC book, may have been preserved, and perhaps photos of them are in the Lianta book.

Edited June 18, 2023 by sand

[Simon]

Thank you @sand I am very happy to add this to my library, I have been looking for some time for a copy. 

I do have one Byzantine book that is rarer but not as well known. I do not use it often, but I do treasure it. 

 Its edition size was only 200 and it is only copper coinage of the Empire issued before 1261. It was privately published in 1981. 

The author is George E Bates and it must have been a huge undertaking. This is pre computer and seems to have been typed and handwritten. His previous book was on the Sardis monographs.

As for the author, I found this on wiki.

Bates was an honorary curator of the Byzantine coins and seals section of the Fogg Museum. He was the author of a book about Byzantine coins. He was a fellow of the American Numismatic Society. (The Sardis book is easily found; this one is rarely mentioned.)

It has a couple of pages of plates in the back. 

His intro leads me to believe he started this before Sears book that was published several years earlier. I really admire his dedication. 

Simon

 

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

2 hours ago, Simon said:

Im am not a tidy person. These top three shelves are coin related, the other shelves not shown are on Renaissance art and later. 

Today i recieved a long sought after book.  #44  out of 250, @TheTrachyEnjoyer has a copy as well. I was jealous until today. Its not easy to aquire.

Congratulations! That is not easy to find nor cheap 😁

[akeady]

6 hours ago, Simon said:

Im am not a tidy person. These top three shelves are coin related, the other shelves not shown are on Renaissance art and later. 

Today i recieved a long sought after book.  #44  out of 250, @TheTrachyEnjoyer has a copy as well. I was jealous until today. Its not easy to aquire.

Bonus points for the Nixies and the Hunter S. Thompson sketch 😄

ATB,
Aidan.

[Simon]

8 minutes ago, akeady said:

Hunter S. Thompson sketch

Close , it is Duke from Doonesbury comic but he was probley modeled from Hunters S Thompson. It was a famous political type cartoon strip by Gary Trudeau. The piece was created from an artist I work with. 

Nixies I don't understand the reference.

The dollar bill was salvaged from the Andrea Doria.

Simon