WILLIAM VAN ORNUM: ABOUT MY LIBRARY

A Numismatic Library and the Way I Collect
If you want to understand how a collector thinks, it is often more revealing to look at the books on his shelves than the coins in his cabinet. A numismatic library is not simply a reference tool. Over time, it becomes a quiet record of questions asked, habits formed, and values gradually settled into place.

When I step back and look at my own library, I see that it falls naturally into several families. Each family reflects not only a subject area, but a way of approaching coins—and, ultimately, a way of collecting that has grown more deliberate with time.

Papal and Vatican Coins: History First, Objects Second
My collecting life began with Vatican and papal coins, and that beginning still shapes everything that followed. This part of my library is anchored by Muntoni's comprehensive reference on papal coinage, along with works by Alan Berman and Joseph Coffin's Lives of the Popes. These books do far more than help identify coins. They insist that coins be understood as expressions of office, theology, authority, and historical circumstance.

Alongside these are long runs of Panorama Numismatico, the Italian journal that regularly includes articles on papal and Vatican issues. I often use AI-assisted translation to work through these pieces—not to replace reading, but to make their themes accessible. What emerges, month after month, is continuity rather than novelty. These coins are witnesses to institutional memory.

Selected Acto Numisma auction catalogs and relevant volumes of Coins of the World extend this perspective outward, placing Vatican issues within a broader classical and global context. Even here, I find myself reading for history first, and commerce second.

Classical Literature: Learning Method, Not Mastery
Another family in my library is classical numismatics, though I approach it with deliberate restraint. This section is anchored by long runs of The Celator, which together offer a sustained education in method. The articles show how knowledge in ancient numismatics is built slowly, argued carefully, revised openly, and sometimes left unresolved.

Alongside the journals is a single-volume reference on Roman coins by David Sear. Earlier in my collecting life, I experimented with more expansive, multi-volume works, but I learned that a manageable book often teaches more than a comprehensive set that discourages use.

Complementing these are selected Leu auction catalogs. Their essays demonstrate how careful description, historical sensitivity, and aesthetic restraint can coexist with commerce. The writing is often as instructive as the photography.

I continue a slow, steady study of ancient coins, focusing on procedures rather than coverage. In this sense, ancient numismatics feels familiar. Many of its best practices parallel those of Early American Coppers.

Early American and Canadian Copper: Training the Eye
A large portion of my library—and my collection—is devoted to early American and Canadian copper, especially large cents. Penny Whimsy remains foundational because it demands patience and disciplined observation. John Wright's work reinforces this approach by emphasizing die families and stylistic coherence.

Supporting these are the EAC grading guide, Dave Bowers' volumes on early American coinage, Adams on 1793–1794, and several years of Penny-Wise. These are working books, often open beside a coin.

Canadian material forms a parallel track. Rob Turner's studies, the Charlton guide devoted to Queen Victoria varieties, and journals of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association ask similar questions within a different minting culture.

What Unites These Families
Across all these book families runs a single collecting theme: process over completion. This library supports slow attribution, historical understanding, and comfort with coins that show honest wear.

AI tools assist at the margins—translating foreign-language articles and helping organize thoughts—but they do not replace the central work: sitting with a coin, a book, and a question that does not resolve quickly.

The Library as a Working Space
A good numismatic library should show signs of use. Spines soften. Margins acquire notes. Volumes remain open on desks. When the books are pristine, the collecting is often sterile.

Mine reflects a different aspiration: not mastery, but steadiness; not completion, but coherence. The books are not accessories to the collection. They are the collection—one built of paper, patience, and attention.

 

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