You finally made me do it!

Just wanted to let you all know I purchased my first Ancient coin. I've seen too many nice examples of ancient coins since I joined CT. Thank you all for sharing wonderful photos of your beautiful coins. As everyone knows, Ancients are new to me so I don't know a thing about them. What is written on the NGC label is Greek to me and it doesn't mean anything. I can understand a little but no meaning. I'm sure you've all been where I am today so I know you understand what I'm saying.

I'm not sure why I liked this one enough to buy it but I did. Probably as it's silver. Don't know if I got a good deal or not, so please let me know what price range this should be in and I'll post my cost afterwards. I don't mind sharing what I paid as it's a new area of coins. You learn by making mistakes. No, I'm not giving up my other collections and please don't consider me converted. I do like the one with animals, insects, etc. but from what I've seen the choices are unlimited.

These photos are from the seller as I do not have the means to do this. Please provide any feedback on the coin or my purchase. At least with it graded, I figured I couldn't be too off base. Keep those Ancients coming! And again, thank you.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I do not collect these, but others here do. However, looking around, I think your coin is well struck and preserved. Can you provide weight and dimensions?

 

I know from personal experience that it's very difficult to photograph coins in a slab, but from what I can see it's a lovely specimen. As long as you understand that "MS" is a designation appropriated by NGC from the grading of moderns. Collectors of ancients do not use the grade MS.

 

Welcome to the dark side CN, hope you enjoy the evils in ancient coin collecting.

 

Bing, unfortunately not.

 

Cool Arab Sassanian. As a quick background, some Parthian nobles sided against the Sassanians, (due to being themselves betrayed), and sided with invading muslims. As a reward they were able to strike their own Sassanid style coins for a while. This is one such location, Tabaristan. Yours is even more unique because Sulayman objected on religious grounds them completely imitating Sassanid issues with a face on the obverse, so he made them replace it with a triangle. So, its a very recognizable piece.

Cool beans man!

 

yes..............yes....this is most excellent. of course you're not converted to the dark side. just purchasing a single coin. but wouldn't just one more be nice?

that's a cool cool and an interesting choice for your first ancient.

it's your basic sassanian fire alter coin...




but shows the influence of islam on the design, they are rules about not having images of people on silver and gold coins.

this coin is early islmaic, but still has the face of the ruler...




yours has the face "censored". i'd like to get one of the type!

 

If a coin shows no signs of circulation wear, I really don't see why it wouldn't be graded as MS - ancient or modern. If the design is complete and as struck, why wouldn't you call it MS? I understand the conservation and preservation aspect of this, but coming from a "modern" collector it seems reasonable to me.

That is an interesting coin. What about the coin attracted you to it, and why did you buy it over something else?

 

For me, the ancient period ends with the fall of Western Roman Empire in 476. I see this more of a medieval piece.

 

I'm afraid to start and get addicted to collecting Roman coins. As an Italian the Romans are our ancestors and part of me feels I should have some Romans in my collection.
90% of my collection is 1700-1920 Sicilian and Italian coins.

 

For a first ancient buy, it's great & one I would take. Better then the usual common roman bronzes too.

 

Join the Dark Side, you will.

That is a beatiful example of a coin that emulates one from the Sassanian Empire (226-651AD). This may still "look greek" to you, but you can google it.
It should show a bust of the emperor on the obverse, but since Islam forbids living representations (God is the only creator of living things), they put a Diamond shape instead of his face. Same thing goes to the reverse, where it should have (again, if they were imitating the Sassanian coinage) an altar between two worshipers, but here they are mishaped in order to avoid any representations.
They are a little more expensive than regular sassanian issues, and Hemidrachm is not a common denomination. I don´t collect this in particular, but I would guess a range between 100-150 USD would be a fair price.

 

This is the info. I was also lead to accept.

 

I found a coin that looks very similar, but it is listed as 1/2 Drachm. This is the description:

Arab-Sasanian, Abbasid Governors of Tabaristan: Sulayman (787-789), AR 1/2 Drachm, struck PYE 137(AD 787/8)
Obverse: Sasanian style Bust, The Kufic word Bakh meaning "Good" in a diamond replacing royal figure.the ruler name Sulayman in Kufic scripts before the face, Pahlavi scripts in third quadrant.

Reverse: Sasanian style fire Alter with two attendants and date 137 in Pahlavi scripts.
It is Album-65 rated Scarce

 

Your first "ancient" purchase looks nicer than my 1st which was just a beat up old Diocletian copper. I must agree, however, with wcoins, in that, ancient history technically ended in 476. But we can debate that, I suppose.

 

yeah, it's technically a medieval coin i guess. as to when ancients stop and medieval coins start, 476 is a good answer. there are other good answers to that question however. for the eastern cultures, there is less of a good answer.

 

This has been debated here ad nauseam. Many differing opinions, but I believe the consensus ended being that Ancients end when coins began being made mechanically. Technically, that would mean much later then the time of this coin (I'll probably receive a lot of flack for this statement).

 

Cool first pick up! Did this one speak to you or was this something you were looking at? Did it being graded make you more comfortable buying it or did it have no influence on your decision? Are you going to keep it in the holder?

I keep a lot more information about my ancients than any of my other coins because there are a lot more variables from coin to coin.

Here's my Sassanian:

 

Oh yes, you also wanted to know what a good price for one of these is. Well, the last time I bought one of these coins was about 20 years ago, but generally, $75-90 is a fair price in that grade range.

 

Great first pickup. Congrats, it is a beautiful piece.