What's a good Ancient silver coin to start with?

Yeah... that Aegina stater is @AncientJoe's and if he ever sells it you'll have to stand in line behind me

In your stated price range coupled with grade desires, you can definitely find something suitable in third century Roman Imperials. Try searching on Vcoins for Gordian III, or look through a list of emperors from around that time and search on Vcoins (advanced search to set your price parameters). Good luck and have fun!!

 

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Lol ok, $100 sounds like a lowball from the responses so far.

What is the lowest "ok" budget to work with that'll open up more options?

 

Do you collect coins?

What type of coins?

 

Gosh.. you can find fascinating, beautiful (or not), and historic ancient coins from $20 to $200K+. It sounds like you simply need to look at thousands of for-sale and for-auction coins to see what you like and then buy something.

There is no right or wrong way to collect. Buy something you find beautiful or interesting; check for comparisons to get an idea of price.

 

I collect high(er) grade silver coins, rarely ever of the same design, coined from all over the world. The designs have to be "good"... which is subjective but generally if it looks more intricate, they tend to be better with the coins I've been collecting, unlike the plain modern ones being minted lately.

There's more criteria that that with more modern coins, but many of them won't apply to ancients for me (e.g. small size restrictions).

I also don't mind raw. I actually prefer it. It feels like a treasure hunt to me.

 

$100 is more than sufficient to buy a high-grade common denarius of any of the emperors or empresses of the Severan dynasty, or an antoninianus of Gordian III or Philip I. Larger Greek silver is considerably more expensive in high grades, but some smaller coins (hemidrachms, etc.) can be found with patience. Persian drachms can also be found in very high grades for under $100.

 

$100 will get you plenty of interesting silver coins. Here are a handful of coins that I paid $100ish or less for(the second was $110 shipped IIRC, but that is the most expensive of the 3):





If I were willing to look at my files, I could probably find more but I'm lazy. But as JA said, if you look at some of the later coins like the Severans you can find a plethora of under-$100 beauties. Same thing with the Parthians. It just all really depends on what you consider to be a nice-enough coin.

 

okay then, good luck ... the more, the merrier

=> "welcome to the show"

=> danger, these babies are stupid addictive!! (enter at your own risk)

https://www.vcoins.com/en/coins/ancient/greek-593.aspx

 

You can certainly form a fascinating collection of high-grade Roman coins at under $100 each. They won't be the most famous emperors (not Julius Caesar or Nero), but they will become well-known to you after a while. You can certainly find numerous emperors from the second and third centuries AD in silver in very pleasing grade at $50 and even better ones at $100.

I'd recommend a Trajan or Marcus Aurelius denarius if you want someone "famous" who is in beginning ancient history books or anyone from the third century (say, Septimius Severus and later) if you just want a nice coin and you don't need it to be from a famous person. (There is lots of history associated with Septimius Severus, but it not in beginner's books.)

Myself, I would recommend you look beyond silver to large coppers (sometimes surface silvered) of the tetrarchy. (Diocletian, 284 AD and later). The following coin of Diocletian (284-305 AD) is not silver, but it is a hefty 27 mm (larger than a quarter), very legible, high grade, and I assure you it will impress your friends. You can get one much like it for well under $100.



My next advice is to go back and read old CoinTalk threads. There are links to previous pages on the bottom on the main ancient coin page. Go back days, weeks, or months, and see what coins and stories you like. Most (not all) the coins discussed here are $100 or less.

The key is to find something that interests you (not us, you). You interests will change if you keep with it, but you will soon realize there is no one route to a fine and interesting collection and the route is certainly not high-grade alone. Do not let your knowledge of modern coins carry over too far into ancient coins. We care about much more than just "grade". As you can tell from CoinTalk threads, we care about the stories behind the coins too.

Enjoy!

 

However, the coins shown by red_spork are no where near AU even if you allow for that grade only being used by slabbers. His and mine shown earlier are closer to VF on average (F to aEF perhaps). If you are willing to collect nice VF coins, $100 will get you a few to select from but probably not the ones you will consider 'good' design. There are rather few interesting types available in super grades at that level. Pretty, Cheap, Interesting. Pick two.

 

Picked this beauty up for $110.

 

Erm, can I just say that you should throw the "Modern" rule book out of the window. Don't buy slabbed coins if you can avoid it. You pay for the slabbing, they do NOT authenticate the coin, the grades are spurious and you don't get to handle the coin.

Search the threads for interesting topics. Get advice from the gurus on this site (you don't have to take it) there is an awful lot of knowledge here, it is freely given and will definitely help you get started.

Research, research and research again. And if you like animals, ignore Stevex6, that guy really is an animal.......

 

I agree!

 

Everyone has said it all ......so I'll just post a high grade coin of a later Emperor known as Maximinus Thrax. This 'silver coin' (a denarius) is considered AU and usually sell for about or less than $100.00 shipped due to numerous hoard discoveries over the years.

 

There is nothing wrong with slabbed coins if you research the prices and stick within a budget. Some of the ancient collectors get their panties in a wad if you post a nice slabbed ancient though

 

I don't know about "panties in a wad", but you will most likely pay for the slab. Do your research before spending your hard earned money. Check any slabbed coin against a like coin not in a slab. Perhaps you'll find something you like either way.

 

I would go for a Roman Republican with a good story like:

This moneyer has been identified as the "Snorer". He was called "the snorer' because he pretended to be asleep in order to facilitate his wife's acts of adultery. He did this when he threw parties for important men whose favors he sought. The story can be found in Lucilius. Cipius feigned sleep to avoid having to acknowledge certain actions of his wife. When a slave stole wine while Cipius was "sleeping," Cipius said 'non omnibus dormio.' (I do not feign sleep for all)
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/rsc/cipia/cipia1.4.txt


Or the Sabine women the Romans kidnapped to start their city, see posting by Bing.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/rape-of-the-sabine-women.228808/

 

I'd echo everybody else and say just search Vcoins with a $120 upper limit. In Roman imperials, I know you can find lots of denarii of the more common rulers in high grade. Here's an example:


I purchased this from Mike Vosper on Vcoins for less than $100. It's a nice, high grade piece that looks better in hand than the picture. It's very round, has excellent centering, and all the legends are very clear. The reverse shows more detail than the picture indicates. It also has a good story to go along with it.

Oh, and BTW, you won't really see dealers in ancients calling coins AU, unless they're slabbed. You want to look for EF, gEF ("good EF"), or "as struck."

 

There are several changes in grading between ancient and modern coins. You will have to get over any issues you have with cleaned coins. A 2000 year old piece of silver will have lots of tarnish unless cleaned. If you stick with it you will use terms like well centered / off flan, bankers marks, environmental damage / horn silver, artistic die work by celator, plated / fouree and others to describe your coins. Beauty is truly in the eye of the individual ancient coin collector. One of my favorites is a beautiful coin and has a good back story. It was a bit over $100.

Part of this coin's story:
The reverse refers to the victory of L. Caecilius Metellus over the Carthaginian Hasdrubal at Panormus in 250 B.C. and the capture of Hasdrubal's elephants. The elephants were paraded at his triumph in Rome.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?zpg=25852

 

Don't listen to VK, he's just jealous that I got this