ONLINE RESOURCES FOR ANCIENT COINS

For many collectors of classic and modern American coins, the only information resource they need is the old, reliable Red Book, which will mark its 75th anniversary in 2022.

Collectors of ancient coins, however, face a problem that is considerably more complex. With thousands of types issued by hundreds of cities, states, and rulers over many centuries, information on ancient coins is scattered across out-of-print books and obscure journal articles in many languages. A common saying among old-school collectors is buy the book before you buy the coin – but finding these books often requires diligent, patient search, and buying them may demand deep pockets.

Fortunately, during the past two decades, a tremendous range of instantly accessible online resources has emerged to help the collector of ancient coins in their study and research.

The following is a personal listing of high-quality websites that I have found useful in my own research and study.

Coin Archives
Launched in October 2002 by A.J. Gatlin, a collector, talented web developer, and database programmer, CoinArchives.com is a repository for coin auction catalogs in the digital domain. Its goal is to make entire auction catalogs … available to Internet users for both academic and commercial research. The free website provides listings (without prices realized) for the most recent six months. The subscription service, Pro CoinArchives, provides listings back to the beginning of this century with prices realized. This is a relatively expensive subscription service ($600 per year), intended mainly for dealers and high-end collectors, but there is an academic discount (without the prices realized) priced according to the number of accounts requested per institution.

Wildwinds
Supported in part by advertising, WildWinds is well-maintained. The website lists over 76,000 coin types, including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Celtic, and English hammered. Greek coins can be searched by cities, geographic regions, rulers, tribes, etc. Roman coins can be searched by ruler (or gens – the extended family or clan of officials responsible for coinage, a traditional way of referencing Republican coins), or by catalog number in the first three volumes of David Sear's monumental five-volume reference, Roman Coins and Their Values. Byzantine coins are searchable by ruler, or by catalog number in Sear's Byzantine Coins and Their Values (1987). In some cases, the text provides prices realized and pedigree information for a coin, but this is not consistent.

To read the complete article, see:
Online Resources for Researching Ancient Coins (https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/online-resources-for-researching-ancient-coins/)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web