Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner's Guide

Collecting Medieval Coins:
A Beginner's Guide
by Paul A. Torongo
  

Publication Date: Aug 22, 2013
ISBN/EAN13: 1492172022 / 9781492172024
Page Count: 386
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 8.5" x 11"
Language: English
Full Color


A detailed description of the ins and outs of collecting medieval coins,
a field of coin collecting different from any other.
Includes hundreds of color photographs of medieval coins 
(along with descriptions of each coin).
Several of the coins shown are UNPUBLISHED specimens (until now).
Covering topics such as medieval minting practices, medieval mint errors, reading medieval coin legends
and everything else the reader may wish to know about medieval coins and collecting them.


 Some sample pages
(the dashed lines don't actually appear in the book itself):

* REVISION 4 now available! *





SORRY FOLKS,
IT'S OUT OF PRINT.

scAmazon put the book out as a e-book on Kindle without my permission.

Let's do a little arithmetic:

$50 per book x 399 copies sold =
$20,000
minus printing costs of $8,800
= $12,000
minus my share ($3 per book) 
= $10,800
that scAmazon made off my book.

I made $1200 (after taxes € 400).
scAmazon made $10,800
and they are not even the "publisher"

...so why am I only getting paid "royalty money"?





RvO Numismatics review of the book
(link)

(Posted on 31/08/2013)

"Last week a new book came out –
Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner’s Guide
 – by long time collector of medieval coins, Paul Torongo.
Paul has worked on this book for years with the objective to give collectors who are new to medieval coins a guide on what they can encounter when entering this area.
Collecting medieval coins is often treated without great detail when coin collecting is discussed in general.
The book gives an overview of the varied field of medieval numismatics with full colour images of coins.
It is not an extensive catalogue of all European medieval coins, but it gives a cross-section of what is out there.
The value of the book is on collecting medieval coins and offers information on various aspects of collecting medieval coins, including the minting process, minting policies, buying medieval coins, lettering, identifying, preservation, photographing and grading of medieval coins (grading is quite different compared to grading modern coins).
Medieval numismatics is characterised by a long time frame (c. 500 to 1500 AD), fragmented geography, varied coinages and coin types, specialist studies and hard to find literature, lack of contemporary resources and often coins that are difficult to find or to identify.
All things that might daunt the beginning collector.
This book offers a useful guide to the beginning but also the advanced collector to start and enjoy collecting medieval coins.
The book might turn out to be a must have for every collector of medieval coins."



Some customer reviews:

"5.0 out of 5 stars 

Superb Book!!! Shout-out to Paul A. Torongo! 

By ThinkPadder

This review is from:

 Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)

I just wanted to get the word out, that this is an awesome educational coin reference book, and very ENTERTAINING!!!

The Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner's Guide is large in size, but light enough to easily handle.

It provides a wonderful amount of background information on these coins, as well as plenty of actual size, colorful photos of many coins, with additional enlarged photos that enhance the finer details of each piece.

Although listed as a Beginner's Guide, I think this includes more than enough data for experienced collectors. I would highly suggest that anyone use this book for teaching purposes too! You can quickly present various clear and well-ordered pages of coin information to other people you are working with.

The book is comprehensive at 386 pages, but it has a larger text font-size than most books, and is a pleasure for your eyes to digest.

When I opened this book, I instantly knew that I would be referring to the many different sections of this book quite frequently-- for the rest of my life! It is a fascinating treasure, that you will want to have handy, ALWAYS!" 

"4.0 out of 5 stars 

By White Friar
This review is from:
Collecting Medieval Coins: A Beginner's Guide (Paperback)
It is a beginners guide to be sure, but what a guide. The vast array of medieval coinage is daunting to a new collector. The book focuses on silver issues which is a great place to start; hence the title. I was impressed by the photography as well as the information on each coin illustrated. Bear in mind it is not intended to be an exhaustive guide book for all coins of the period. That comes later in each person's personal journey numismatically. It is a very tasty beginning treat.

I have an interest in medieval coinage but am not totally immersed in it, I pick and choose. For that purpose the book is perfect for the non specialist and should be in any numismatic library. On a practical matter, the book saved me money right after I received it. The section on modern fakes illustrated a coin I was ready to purchase as original. The price of the book was well below the cost of purchasing a fake.

There is a dictum in the numismatic community: "Buy the book before you buy the coin." This book certainly qualifies as confirmaion of that dictum and is a great addition to my library. Buy the book."
 
ERRATA:

Unless your copy of the book says Revision 4 on p. 336, there are unfortunately a few minor errors in the book:

p. 176 - fig. 9.7
The correct reference number is Grolle 17.2.2.

p. 333, fig. 28.10
The obverse legend should read HANONIE and not HANOINE.

pp. 333-334, figs. 28.10 & 28.11
Some of the Latin E's transcribed should be "Lombardic" e's.