No comments about Token Catalog and Handbook Century Tokens.

1 comments about Money: 365 Days of Currency: 2007 Wall Calendar.

1. Posted in my office. Lots of curious (about the pictures) comments. Very attractive & intellectually stimulating at the same time. I hope they do one (or have one) that focuses more on banknotes than on coins for my 2008 selection.

No comments about The Coins of the Twelve Caesars: A Numismatic History of Rome.

No comments about The Official U.S. Mint Ez-Wraps: Cents.

No comments about Official 1996 Blackbook Price Guide of U.S. Coins (Official Blackbook Price Guide to United States Coins).

No comments about Chairman Mao Badges: Symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution (British Museum Research Publication) (British Museum Research Publication).

No comments about Welsh industrial tokens and medals;: Sidelights on 18th and 19th century industrial development,.

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1 comments about Roman Republican Moneyers & Their Coins, 63 BC - 49 BC (Aspects of Ancient Classical Coins).

1. Occassionally a book gives pleasure way beyond every expectation raised by the title. It happens when an enthusiast is let loose on a subject that delights him, that he knows more about than seems possible and he has the talent to communicate his knowledge in an impressive and interesting way. When the subject is as well rehearsed as the final years of the Roman Republic, to find a new slant and pack it with brilliant detective work makes for great reading.
   
   Presumably everyone who is interested in Roman Republican coins and the final years of what Tacitus first called the Roman Republic, over a century after its demise, will have devoured this book enthusiastically. If they haven't they should. It is worth shelves full of lesser retellings of the familiar parts of both stories, on a par with Henri Cohen and Ronald Smythe.
   
   But readers unfamiliar with coins as the only mass produced media of the day and with little or no understanding of the politics of Rome in the middle of the first century BCE will be enthralled by the quality of this work and the intelligence of its author. The book contains more brilliant detective work than most thrillers and breaths life into ancient history.
   
   During the 15 years under consideration young Roman aristocrats setting out on a political career were appointed annually to one of some sixty public posts: some civil, some legal,some military, some helping with the governance of foreign parts. Those put in charge of the mint were responsible for the coinage for a year. Whereas the quality and quantity of the coinage was largely determined by others and the technical side was carried out by artists and artisans, the young hopefuls were able to prescribe what the coinage portrayed. The coins were redesigned differently each year. At a time when coins really were the only mass produced media of the day and a media of some permenance, here was a golden (or silver or bronze) oppertunity to strike your mark, or that of your ancestors, which spoke well of your genes.
   
   Michael Harlan is competant with this material to an uncanny degree. He introduces new concepts and challenges long held views with a persuasion and elegance it is rare to find.
   
   His book was published ten years ago and remains fresh. Can he be the poet who published much the same time and the author, with his partner Linda, of a later book on setting up a market garden in his back yard. I suspect so. There are lively spirits, who know they go through life just the once and choose to make the most of it. In spite of its title 'Roman Republican Moneyers and their coins 63BC - 49BC' is much too good to be work of an acedemic or any other sort of type in a rut.
   
   Good luck to him and every sucess with all his enterprises.

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