Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191261 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 131 pages

Customer Reviews

Superb
Assuming you like ancient coins and the history behind them (and if you don't what are you doing here?) this book is a must-have. Each of the coins gets a full page containing a large picture of the coin, details of the history behind the coin and commentary about the market availability of the coin. Many of the coins are beyond the finances of an average collector and this book may be as close as most people come to owning a example. But the book does not feature rare coins alone, some very common coins were also chosen and these are within the reach of most of us.

These is a lot to learn from this book. Did you know that the only known portrait of Hannibal is on a coin? That there is a coin showing Noah's Ark? That the master coin engravers in Syracuse signed their names into their coins? That the first portrait of Christ on an ancient coin used the face of Phidias' famous statue of Zeus as a model? That is only a small taste of what the book contains.

Berk hit this one out of the park.

Big and Beautiful
This coffee-table book is a veritable Who's Who of Ancient Numismatics. It depicts the 100 most famous, beautiful or historically significant coins from the beginning of coinage through the Byzantine Empire. Each coin is lusciously illustrated with enlarged, full-color photographs of examples in the finest condition. The significance of each coin is explained in an essay below.

You won't find many coins in your own collection represented here--most are museum-quality specimens out of reach for all but the wealthiest collectors.

But if you wish to be awed by the numismatic art of the ancient world, the coins in this book are breathtaking.

I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in numismatics or in the history and art of the ancient world.

Any interested in early coins will find this a winner
Any library strong in ancient coin history will relish 100 GREATEST ANCIENT COINS, an oversized presentation from one of the country's top ancient-coin researchers who examines the finest coins of antiquity. The oversized presentation allows for full-page, large-sized and close-up images of the front and back of each selected coin, while history provides a lively discourse of their origins. Any interested in early coins will find this a winner.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch