Book Review: 100 Greatest Ancient Coins
Mike Marotta
Publishing LLC, 2008, $29.95, 133 pages)
(Portions of this work appeared in The Mich-Matist, Fall 2008)
Whitman continues its “100 Greatest” series with another lavish,
authoritative and yet inexpensive issue, 100 Greatest Ancient Coins by
Harlan J. Berk. As a respected writer, he is a lifelong learner, and
for him, writing this book was an educational experience. He told me,
“Syracuse was founded on a small island and then moved to Sicily. The
four dolphins [on their large silver coins] represent the sea. I had
not known that. If I did not, then others probably did not as well.”
Unlike the other books in the 100 Greatest series, this one is
arranged chronologically. The Number 1 ancient coin of all time is the
EID MAR (Ides of March) denarius issued by M. Junius Brutus in 42 BCE
to commemorate the assassination of G. Julius Caesar two years
earlier. However, the first coin in the book is an Ionian Electrum
Stater, (ranked number 81) because it is the oldest known true coin.
From archaic Ionia, through the Greeks, Alexander the Great and the
Hellenistic kingdoms to the Roman republic and empire, the book closes
with the issues from Constantinople of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Berk points out that those later Romans of the Eastern Empire never
called themselves “Byzantine.” That term is a consequence of papal
politics of the 17th century. His assertion is one of many facts that
hallmark the recent scholarship behind this book. Berk also maintains
that the coins of Alexander the Great depict the young conqueror.
Images of Alexander appear on four coins: the Alexander tetradrachm,
the Pergamon gold stater, the tetradrachm of Lysimachus and the Porus
coin.
Those issues highlight another aspect: these are the hundred
greatest, not the hundred most expensive. While many of these examples
are, indeed, significant rarities that have brought prices in excess
of $100,000, about a dozen are affordable to any serious collector.
Berk told me that he recently sold 700 anonymous folles of the mid-
third century for $18 each. “These are coins that anyone can afford.
They had a political impact. There are ten such coins in the book, in
the reach of any collector.”
Mark B.
"Mike Marotta" <mer...@torchlake.com> wrote in message
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