When Money Talks

Likeable.... It also conveys something very important: holding a coin that someone else held two thousand years ago creates a special feeling of connectedness. * London Review of Books *
The author's enthusiasm for both coins and history of numismatics renders this slim volume positively unputdownable. * Ivana Petrovic, Greece and Rome *
An excellent read and provides valuable insights into coins, the people who minted them, and now the people who study them. * Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society *
When Money Talks should be required reading for economists, historians, archaeologists, classicists, sociologists, and contemporary scholars, each of whose fields, among others, can benefit from better understanding money and its use. * David Hendin, American Numismatic, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Holt's tour de force is his anecdotal history of coins and money.... Holt advocates for a multi-disciplinary field called "cognitive numismatics"...that the subtleties of history, economics, and other fields can gain a lot from the study of material artifacts such as the coins they used. * David Hendin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
When a perfect author connects with his perfect subject, a book like When Money Talks is born. I found something I wanted to learn (or be reminded of) on almost every page. Holt is a specialist who has written a needed book for generalists. Using popular and academic themes, he explains numismatics in a broader context than it is usually understood.... When Money Talks should be required reading for economists, historians, archaeologists, classicists, sociologists, and contemporary scholars, each of whose fields, among others, can benefit from better understanding money and its use. * David Hendin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
There really is no other book like this. Holt explores the origins of money in the form of coinage and the history of the discipline that studies it (numismatics) in a highly readable and entertaining fashion. His ability to simplify difficult concepts and find the perfect analogy is remarkable, as is the breadth of his knowledge of money from the ancient world to the world of today. * Peter van Alfen, American Numismatic Society *
A holistic and creative introduction to an often-underappreciated subject -- readily accessible to those with no prior knowledge of numismatics, but equally a thought-provoking must-read for specialists. * Liv Mariah Yarrow, CUNY *
Frank Holt's books are always interesting and usually groundbreaking... His books approach their given subjects with both wit and wisdom. Holt also has a way with words whose flow carries the general reader along with little effort. This book is no exception. It is surely the distillation of decades' worth of study of, and fascination with, ancient coins - witness the book's 30 pages of endnotes and 16 pages of select bibliography- but Holt always wears his learning lightly... When Money Talks is both accessible to anyone without any prior knowledge of numismatics and engrossing for experts in the field... Not only is the focus on the historical dimension of coins made clear, but so is the personal take on what will follow. Holt takes us by the hand for a tour that is intimate but no less scholarly for that. * Mouseion *