We are an authorized, direct-from-the-publisher retailer of NEW books. Our titles are ON HAND and available for immediate shipping. Published by the University of Michigan, this is an excellent, 310 page book containing hundreds of engravings of ancient coins, especially of important principal coins which collectors should expect to encounter. Front and back are shown, and a brief description accompanies most entries. This book is a worthy addition to the library of any budding or expert numismatists. NUMISMATICS, or the science whose aim is the study of coins might be considered as a branch of Archaeology, were its enquiries: confined to the coins of by-gone days. As coins of modern periods, however, fall within its range, Numismatics must stand as at independent study. Still, to the student of history, coins are ever of interest. They furnish him with notices of the religious and political systems of ancient nations, as well as of the geography and history of communities of which written traditions give him but the name. The devices on early Greek coins always express some historic or religious tenet in the national belief. A recently discovered series of Bactrian coins tells of a Greek Empire in Central Asia, whose very existence had been previously unknown, " The Roman Imperial coins," says Sir J. Bowring, "in addition to their individual character and interest, possess a general historical interest in consequence of being for the most part struck to commemorate remarkable events. The difficulties of history are consequently cleared up by these contemporary records, which are so complete until the time of Constantine that histories have been compiled from them. They form the most authentic data in the Roman annals, the years of the consular and tribunitian offices held by the Emperors appearing in the front, and on the reverse, representations of the events whose dates are expressed on the other side. The coins of Trajan, of Hadrian and of the Antonines are remarkable for this and for the accurate data which are thereby supplied to history, by which the mistakes of chroniclers are often corrected."
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