2018 BOOK PRIZE PRESENTED TO CATHARINE LORBER

On behalf of the IAPN Executive Committee, may we thank you, Mr President, for the opportunity to present our Book Prize for 2018 this evening.

The IAPN Book Prize is now in its 37th year, having been first awarded in 1982, when the late Dr Martin Price was the recipient. The first American winner of the Prize was Dr Robert van Arsdell in 1990. Since then Stephen Scher, David Vagi and Harrington Manville have been among those from the United States whose publications have been honoured in this way. But this year we have something of a first, in that our winner, Cathy Lorber, is the only person to have been awarded the Prize twice.

Her first award, jointly with Arthur Houghton in 2003, was for the first volume in their seminal work on Seleucid coins. This year Cathy wins the award in her own right for her 2-volume magnum opus, Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire, covering the issues of the first four Ptolemaic kings.

Cathy needs no introduction to many of you in this room. She spent almost 40 years as a cataloguer in commercial numismatics, before retiring from the commercial world 10 years ago. A graduate in Classical Greek from UCLA, she has combined cataloguing coins with publishing coin hoards and compiling specialist studies from different parts of the Greek Empire. Since 1990 she has published, or co-compiled, almost 100 studies in this field, a phenomenal achievement. Her latest work is the first significant treatment of the entire Ptolemaic series since that of the great Greek scholar, Joannes Svoronos, 110 years ago. That work was a ground-breaker in its day and those of us cataloguing these coins have used it ever since, but now we have this magnificent new study that has been recognised by the IAPN as being fully deserving of our Book Prize.

And let me say that the opposition Cathy’s title faced was among the strongest I can remember: 19 other works were submitted for consideration, all worthy of a place on any serious numismatist’s bookshelf. 2018 was indeed a memorable year for new numismatic books.

To present the Diploma and Medal to Cathy, I would like to welcome Emma Pratte, Membership Secretary of her publishers, the American Numismatic Society, and Dan Sedwick, President of the IAPN.

For more information on IAPN, see:
https://www.iapn-coins.org/

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: COINS OF THE PTOLEMAIC EMPIRE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n26a03.html)
2019 IAPN BOOK PRIZES AWARDED (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n21a14.html)

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