What are you collecting these days?

I collect without really any direction/ focus. The ONLY thing that I have been successfull at is having at least three or more AV coins from every century since 600BC. My three best areas of collecting thus far....
German States 345 AV coins
Indian States 122 AV coins
Ottoman Empire/ Turkey 95 "
Italian States 90 "
I have coins from 400+ sovereign nations/ City States/ where I have one or more AV coins from. Also six that are "unique" 10 unpublished but more then my ex. known....
My basic problem is lack of funds
I still have NO coins from China....
John

 

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Old gold or silver coins from China are very tough.

 

I almost exclusively collect gold coins (although I plan to add at least one silver coin to my collection, namely the Athenian silver tetradrachm from the 5th century BCE, if I manage to find it in really top condition that is!) that are over 100 years old and from countries that are of the most historical interest to me, I buy a gold coin from one country of interest and then move on to the next one, the coins I have bought so far are:

Gold Roman Solidus of Julian II (minted in Antioch sometime between 361 and 363)

Gold Sassanid Dinar of Shapur II from 320

Gold Umayyad Dinar of al-Walid I from the early 8th century

Gold Seljuk Dinar of Tughril I from the middle of the 11th century

Gold Almohad half-dinar of Abu Yaqub Yusuf from the 12th century

6 stuivers Dutch gold coin from 1770

10 crown Austro-Hungarian gold coin from 1912

2 Japanese Yen gold coin from 1870

The next coin I plan to buy is a quality one from ancient Greece, so either
the 5th century BCE Athenian silver tetradrachm I mentioned earlier or the Gold stater of Alexander the Great from the 4th century BCE, but if some other quality coin that is of interest to me came along before I managed to find them, like the Ottoman gold sultani of Mehmed II for example, I would buy that coin first.

 

I would really like to buy the 8th century Tang Dynasty gold coin you can see on my avatar, but I have never seen it for sale in any condition anywhere! Which leads me to think that if it did become available in good condition, the price would be crazy...

 

I have never seen a Chinese gold coin struck before 1890s. Once saw a gold ingot from Warring States/ but not a coin.
There are none listed in Friedberg. Annamese coins are super nice/ but $$$$$$$$. I have 2 only...

 

Neither have I, which is strange, because even with communist China's ban on the export of pre-1911 (at least I think it is pre-1911, they might have changed the year again) cultural goods, you would think that at least some of them would have made it out of mainland China when millions of Chinese people escaped from mainland China after the communists won the Chinese civil war, and that some would have made their way into the market by now, plus since the UK and Portugal handed over Hong Kong in 1997 and Macao in 1999 to communist China, the export ban doesn't apply to Hong Kong and Macao (or at least that is my understanding), so somebody from Hong Kong or Macao could buy them in mainland China and then export them to the West, but that doesn't seem to be happening either.

I wish that there was some Chinese coin expert on this forum who could make clear whether there are or have been in the recent past any genuine pre-Qing Chinese gold coins available for sale anywhere.

 

@Croatian Coin Collector if you love gold coins, @panzerman is the king of gold world coins here in my opinion. Search some of his past posts and you'll see some stunning examples running pretty much the entire history of coinage.

 

Thanks for kind words! But/ nothing from China before Manchu Dynasty. Even Kublai Khan did not strike gold coinage. This coin from CNG Triton XIX Larry Adams coll. sold for 25K
Eastern Zhou Dynasty/ State of Chu/ Yi ng City
Circa 4-3 rd century BC "Warring States Ingots"

 

I have spent a good deal of time collecting the coins of King George III of England. He ruled during a turbulent time, both for England, Europe and the British coinage system. It ended with a total reform of the British coinage, a new London mint and steam powered presses.

I have wrestled with an exhibit, an article and a presentation about this interesting era.

 

My other major disappointment is regards to Asian coins is that Korea didn't produce gold coins until the early 20th century, and those coins are based on the design of the Japanese gold Yen coins, one of which I own, so the Korean copy doesn't interest me.

 

Yes, and at least some of them seem to be based on the Tang design, so I think that I will try to get an Annamese gold coin instead of a Chinese one, but you are right about the prices, I was shocked when I saw for how much some of them were sold for at recent auctions!

 

Love them too!

 

Even though I like the designs of some of them, I have decided against adding an Annamese gold coin to my collection, they cost way more than I think they should, I just wouldn't be able to rationalize to myself paying more for a gold coin of a 19th century French protectorate in central Vietnam than I did for the gold coins of Julian II and Shapur II combined.

 

After my recent purchases, my gold coin collection now looks like this:

Gold Roman Solidus of Julian II (minted in Antioch sometime between 361 and 363)

Gold Sassanid Dinar of Shapur II from 320

Mughal Mohur of Aurangzeb from the early 18th century

Gold Umayyad Dinar of al-Walid I from the early 8th century

Gold Ghaznavid Dinar of Mahmud of Ghazni from the early 11th century

Gold Seljuk Dinar of Tughril I from the middle of the 11th century

Gold Almohad half-dinar of Abu Yaqub Yusuf from the 12th century

6 stuivers Dutch gold coin from 1770

10 crown Austro-Hungarian gold coin from 1912

2 Japanese Yen gold coin from 1870

Next I would like to add a gold coin from ancient Greece to my collection, hopefully the gold stater of Alexander the Great.

 

I still need AV Solidus Julian II/ also AV Dinar Shapur II

I do have AV Dinar Shapur I Ctesiphon Mint in MS/ these are very common. I need United Provinces AV 6 Stiuvers too. Have the others. Julian Solidi are very $$$.

 

I bought mine for a little under 2200 USD:

 

I'm still chipping away at sets that I would like to finish; a type set of fractional
notes, classic commemoratives with all the varieties but not all of the mint marks, US gold starting with the classic head series and a century set going back to 600BC. I also find myself subconsciously creating a box of 100. In the commemorative and gold sets the two Pan-Pac $50 and a Stella are well beyond my reach. Recently, my LCS let me hold a Gobrecht dollar that was graded PRF 52. He laughed when I asked about a two-year lay-a-way.

 

I don't know if the condition is acceptable to you, but a 6 stuivers gold coin is available on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2555232726...49&osub=-1~1&crd=20240201102149&segname=11051

 

Sorry/ I must have had a brain cramp! I do have Julian II/ I NEED Jovian I

Here is my Julian II from Sirmium Mint

 

The only other Roman coin I would like to eventually buy is the Aureus of Marcus Aurelius.