A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients

Head’s guide selects representative gold and silver coins from the British Museum to illustrate the chronological and artistic development of ancient coinage. Seven plates and concise descriptions make it useful for visual orientation, period terminology, and the identification of major civic and royal series. Because it emphasizes exemplary pieces rather than completeness, the book is best used to understand the museum’s teaching narrative and the stylistic framework behind Head’s later catalogues and Historia Numorum.

Because the work predates much of the modern archaeological, die-study, epigraphic, and provenance evidence, verify dates, mint or ruler assignments, legend readings, authenticity, and current specimen locations against current corpora and databases.