Trivia Question - The first book on coins

[GDJMSP]

Coin collecting as a hobby has been around for about 2500 years. But how long have books on the subject been around ? When was the first book on coins written - what year ? And who wrote it ?

 

I am referring to a printed & bound volume - not somebody's handwritten manuscript.

[michael]

[WoodenJefferson]

This one is very early...

 

The Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby.

 

This incredible one volume reference was first published in 1875 and it has been reprinted a number of times since. Perhaps the most impressive fact about this book is the fact that over 125 years after it was written, it is still the standard reference on Colonial coinage. Just as impressive is the fact that virtually none of its historical and numismatic information has been improved upon. Originals are rare and expensive; the Quarterman Publications reprint, available for under $100, is fairly easy to find and it is the best produced of the various reprints.

 

 

[just-john]

How long 438 yrs what year 1517 author COINS AT THE COURTS OF INNSBRUCK AND FLORENCE

The numismatic cabinets of Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici

[GDJMSP]

Boy ! Talk about dredging a post up from the grave

 

Actually there was an earlier book -

 

In 1511, Margarethe Peutinger, wife of the Humanist Conrad Peutinger, sent a treatise on the images and titles of the Roman Emperors on the coins of their times to her brother Christopher Welser, asking him to arrange the publication of this work.

 

A copy was in the news not too long ago if memory serves. I seem recall that it was donated to the ANA library.