Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics

The first edition of Historia Numorum provides a mint-by-mint survey of Greek coinage, summarizing chronology, metals, standards, types, legends, rulers, and historical context across the Mediterranean and Near East. It became the central reference framework for generations of catalogues. Researchers can use the 1887 edition to trace the original form of Head’s classifications, identify citations that predate the revised edition, and compare how specific mints or series were later reorganized.

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.