Coins from the Gela Mint from the city's Archaeological Museum and the Vatican Coin Collection

Giancarlo Alteri, Eleonora Giampiccolo, Coins from the Gela Mint from the Archaeological Museum of the City and from the Vatican Coin Collection, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2014, pp. 267, richly illustrated with splendid enlargements, 24 cm, full cloth binding, with titles on the spine, front cover, and dust jacket.

This bilingual (Italian-English) volume presents the coins of the ancient city of Gela, preserved both at the Sicilian city's Archaeological Museum and at the Vatican Apostolic Library's Coin Collection. "2,700 years of history told through the immense monetary heritage of the Gela mint, preserved in the City Museum," summarizes the Mayor of Gela in the preface, aiming to instill in young people the awareness of living in an extraordinary city, where every corner evokes echoes of time, and every trace found represents the sign of profound knowledge. The coin catalog is preceded by the Prologue, "Elegy of the Walls," by Giovanni Chiaramonte, an internationally renowned photographer. After an introduction on the city's history, from its foundation to its destruction in 282 BC, the catalog itself follows, listing the coins minted by the ancient city of Gela during the Greek period and preserved at the city's Archaeological Museum. The volume is completed by an appendix with a brief history of the Vatican Library's coin collection, which precedes the catalogue of the eighteen coins from ancient Gela preserved in the Vatican, including examples not present in the Gela collection.

In perfect condition. Rare.