Which (ancient) coin books would you recommend to a semi-beginner?

[Marsyas]

Hi everyone!
I am looking for recommendations to buy my first books (catalogues) on ancient coinage, that is:

• One on Roman republican coinage (not pre-coinage or casts).
• One or two on Roman Imperial coinage (until the fall of the Western Roman Empire). May be split between early and late Empire.
• One or two on hellenistic coinage. May be split between city-states and post-Alexander coinage.

My criteria would be:

• Good quality photos for each type (or most). I want to enjoy broswing the book and see all the coins I will never be able to afford / find, not just use it to catalogue the coins I buy.
• The book does not have to be the ultimate experts-oriented compilation of every slight variant, error, countermark, etc. A comprehensive list of types + a list of mintmarks (or other recurrent symbols / abreviations) is enough for me.
• Extra points if the book provides interesting stories behind specific coins (why was that imagery/legend chosen by that ruler at that moment, how does a coin fit within the successive monetary reforms, etc.).
• Extra points if current price estimates are provided, but this is not essential.
• Extra points if the book was published or updated in the past 10-20 years.
• The books may be in English, French or Spanish.

This is my first post on this forum!

PS. Only recommendations, please, I am not looking for offers of 2nd hand books.

[Marsyas]

And a broader (but related) question:

So far, I have managed to identify all the ancient coins I've bought (that is, around 150) using online catalogues (CRRO, OCRE, PELLA) and other online resources (Tesorillo, Denarios, LesDioscures, All-your-coins, etc.), and I feel that using acsearch and coinarchives I have enough information to orientate myself with regards to what is a reasonable price for the coins i want to buy on auction. However, I wonder if in 2024 books still offer something (to the non-experts) that online tools do not already provide. What do you think?

 

Edited September 17 by Marsyas

[-monolith-]

My beginning book recommendations for new collector's would be:

David Sears 5 volume Roman Coins series for Roman Imperial Coins

David Sears 2 volume Greek Coins and Their Values series for Greek coins

Crawford for Roman Republic Coinage

ERIC I and ERIC II by Rasiel Suarez for Roman Imperial and Byzantine coinage - by far one of the best books for color photos, and also has a lot of detailed information, he's also an active member on this forum.

 

 

Ancient Coin Collection by Sayles - basic starter set covering Greek, Roman and Byzantine 

 

 

Roman Silver Coins by Seaby - good starter for Roman Imperial Coinage, but redundant of Sears Roman Coin books.

Edited September 17 by -monolith-

[Deinomenid]

1 hour ago, Marsyas said:

The book does not have to be the ultimate experts-oriented compilation of every slight variant, error, countermark, etc. A comprehensive list of types + a list of mintmarks (or other recurrent symbols / abreviations) is enough for me.

Welcome Marsyas. That's quite a name to bear!

On the Greeks side there isn't one  "comprehensive list of types + a list of mintmarks (or other recurrent symbols / abbreviations)" as it is  just too vast an area. The Greek Coins and their values suggested above is good for this but you need  one for each Greek area.   The old (Head) Historia Numorum is a decent stab at  what you are looking for though much has advanced since then.  Unlike many  Greek books, it can be  acquired  quite cheaply secondhand online. Unfortunately though I would  not  win any  of your extra points for publication date.