Customer Rating: 
Summary: Informative and important !
Comment: This book is an invaluable reference and great educational tool for collectors of ancient coins. It explains many aspects of the field in an academic but witty style. Very readable text, also contains lots of reference material indexed for additional study of specific areas of research. A "must have" for those new to this area of collecting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Agree with other reviews, good 1st book on ancient coins
Comment: This is a good introductory book to ancient coin collecting. Getting one's feet wet in this are of numismatics, is a touchy thing in this day of on line auctions...where forgeries are easily sold as authentic. Book covers most everything a numismatist new to this field could want, online help, types, forgeries, authentication, caveats, etc. Good read for the newbie in ancients.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Best first book to get!
Comment: This is a great single volume reference on Ancient Coin Collecting. I don't want to repeat what others have written, but I found it to be thorough, well-researched, engaging and well-organized. It will spark your imagination and add to your knowledge base without overwhelming you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This should be your first ancient coin book
Comment: This is something of a potpourri of ancient coin information. It doesn't make a good reference work, per se; there are other books, etc. to purchase when you settle on your collecting theme. It is a great background resource, though, and helped me to clarify my own collecting themes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The key to a totally different world of coin collecting
Comment: As a collector over 30 years on Chinese and modern world coins, it's an adventoure for me to probe a totally different field of coin collecting - the western world ancient coins. What I need most is something to show me the way, to give me an outline, to guide me to the right direction, as well as to keep me interested at the unfamiliar new world.This book serves my needs exactly as it starts with very basic but substantial introduction to the ancient western cultures which are not familiarized by an oriental like me. Then there are good references provided, among them I appreciated most the last part of Chapter II, "Ancient Coins and the Internet", and also Chapter VI, "Numismatic Literature". Those information show a beginner to a broader view and an easier access in continuing his collection interest.
I would say the most fancinating part of this book is surely Chapter VII, "Identifying Ancient Coins". It's systematically arranged thus I can get a clear picture of different categories of ancient coins, together with fundamental history background of the coin issuers. That is, indeed, far more interesting than just reading a coin catalogue.
For anyone who intends to start ancient coin collecting, this is the book to start with.
