Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins: An Official Whitman Guidebook Paperback – January 1, 1995

This book is wonderful. It is a must have for anyone collecting ancient coins, or just want to know their history.

Have been collecting and slowly cleaning ancient coins from dig sites. Now it’s time to ID them. This book has already helped me immensely.

Purchased this primarily as a resource for identifying Roman coins, and this is truly fantastic at that. This helps identify obverse and reverse inscriptions, includes lists of the most common inscriptions, coin images (emperors, deities, personifications, etc.), and mint marks. While not completely exhaustive, it does identify the majority of what you would normally encounter. Even though the Roman section doesn’t start until page 176, it contains just about everything you might need to identify what coin you have. It DOES NOT get into issues of value or determining authenticity, so if that is what you are after, then you will need to look elsewhere. The Greek portion of the book is much more image-based identification, and does not go as in-depth with inscriptions as it does in the Roman portion. It may still be useful if you collect Greek coins, but it would likely need to be supplemented. Overall, I found that this is well worth the money.

When I first started the hobby of collecting ancient coins I asked several dealers if there was one book I could get that was both inexpensive and broad. Klawans "Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins" was the repeated answer.The book is essentially divided into a part "A" and a part "B", 'A' being Greek and 'B' being Roman Imperial. Very little attention is given to Republican Rome and Byzantine Rome but that is forgivible considering all the other helps.I got the book, read it cover to cover and still refer to it now even though I have added many ancient coin collecting books to my library since that are more specialized. Klawans' book has many helpful sections on various topics such as on how to read and break down those Roman titles and inscriptions. There is a chronological guide to the Roman emperors and their families, reverses of gods and 'personifications' and other mythological & religious data. The book is copiously illustrated throughout. There is an illustrated guide of coins by city. There are even an ancient rulers guide included ( but with some notable cultures missing ) in it.If you are just getting started with collecting ancient Greek and/or Roman Imperial coins on a shoestring, this is your guide, but, one word of caution, if you are buying uncleaned bulk Roman coins and need an attribution guide this is not the book, this book deals with pre-Constantinian Roman coins. However if you are buying cheap greek bronzes and budget Roman denarii, antoninianii, sestertii, etc., THIS IS THE BOOK TO GET !

My son loved it

This book has a treasure trove of information about antiquity coins in Greece and Rome. Many pictures of the coins are interesting. A first-rate book for collectors and those who are interested in ancient history.

This publication is very helpful, not only in identification but also in the history sketches it presents. Would recommend this for the beginner but also the more advanced collector. I was impressed with the organization and presentation of it. Reads well too.

This well illustrated book is quick and easy to read and provides some basic information to for those intending to collect ancient Greek and Roman coins. It will help you recognize many common coins. It will allow you to interpret the inscriptions and in many cases the imagery on these coins. It is inexpensive.Some things will not be found in it, however. Republican Roman coins (a fascinating area) are strangely not covered at all. There is no information regarding assessing the quality of coins, cleaning them, recognizing fakes, determining price or caring for your collection. For this type of information you should look at Wayne Sayles' more extensive series. For coin valuation David Sear is invaluable. This book is a cheap and simple way to form an impression about ancient Greek and Roman coin collecting. Eventually, recognizing that the price of almost any coin described in the book is far greater than that of the book itself, serious collectors will want to invest in more extensive reference sources. One must start somewhere however, and this is a good place to do so.