Ancient coin starter set

I have spent the last night and morning looking at ancient coins. I am considering doing a 6 coin starter set. I have never done a poll so don't know if I will pull it off but here are the three options I came up with.
Coins with interesting faces. My wife says do this. You may find an interesting time in history to explore.
Coins by size. My daughter says do this. She says just like I discovered my preference for half dollars I might make the same discovery.
Coins with cats. Elliot my ginger cat need not be asked.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

As I voted I would do faces.

 

Faces for me. You may be inclined to ask a mod to move this post to the ancients section. You will get more answers from ancient collectors. Not that this is the wrong forum, just that more people interested in the subject of your post will probably see it in the other forum.

 

It is a requirement that any choices with the word "cat" can not be used.

 

I think it depends on how the word "Ancient" is being used.

 

If you go to the ancient forum and just scroll for a page or two most of the avatars shown have a face on them.

 

True. To many people, coins 150 years old seem ancient. I guess it would be helpful to have an idea of the time period the OP is considering.

 

Although the very first thought I had was HER, when I read the Title. Context, I guess...

 

Ancient pertaining to coins is 500 AD and earlier. is that correct?

 

More or less. Some people consider the Byzantine period an extension of Imperial Rome, others don´t.

 

Yes I would be looking at coins pre roman fall. Since I don't want to spend a great deal of money I would have to do some more research on how expensive different periods cost. james

 

I voted faces, but there is more to consider. There are several reverse types, and I would consider giving those a look as well. Some have military themes, animals, altars, gods, et cetera so it's a broad spectrum that really has something for everyone. To that effect, that's how I would collect late bronzes because there are just so many emperors. For the second-century emperors, there are not a whole lot of them so I try to collect the Denarii of each emperor; albeit more expensive, they present well because they are silver. The reverse types are also more varied in my experience, just because the emperor had power for so long that they could toy around with the reverses.

 

Thanks for the information Noah. I am looking at an initial budget of $300 but don't know yet what is realistic.

 

$300 would net some good starters. If you can put up with c. $25 shipping (fast FedEx from Germany), Savoca is a good one. They have many attractive coins at a budget.

The only bad thing about Savoca, they didn't put their coins in subcategories; it's "Roman', Greek, etc, no rulers, sub-kingdoms. You can sort by price lowest to greatest, list A-Z, etc.

This overlaps with the "recommend a collection" thread. I would recommend reading my recommendations to the poster. As I also recommended to him, knowing the history can make it so much better with collecting. I recommend the Totalus Rankium podcast, which ranks all Roman and Byzantine emperors. Justinian II (685-695, 705-711) won #1 most interesting emperor, by the way. If you like Game of Thrones, he's your guy. However, coins of his aren't exactly super-rare, but they're not super-common, either.

With your recovery, you have some time to listen to podcasts. Valentinian I has a really fantastic story. There are more scholarly podcasts, but Totalus Rankium is presented in a really entertaining way.

I recommend Gallienus Antoninianii from the Cologne mint. Really affordable,has some of the best style, and there are some neat busts with him holding a spear and shield. Gallienus was a really underrated emperor, holding things somewhat together at a time where the Empire could have easily ended.

If you can put up with silver-coated copper, there's the Antoninianii of Aurelian and Probus. Probus has many interesting bust types and both are affordable in nice condition. Aurelian has a really interesting story, too. Listen to his podcast.

Delve around the 'recommend' thread for Augustuscoins (Valentinian's) beginner links. I also recommended some of my favorite go-to dealers.

I've been collecting since the 1980's, almost all ancients.

I'd also recommend quality over quantity. Although you can get 6 attractive coins for $300, why not make it 3 and get 3 really good ones? It'll also depend on the emperor. If you're going 12 Caesars, an imperial will be decrepit under about $75. A Nero imperial for a decent one would run at least $150. Nero's debased silver Tetradrachms from Alexandria, Egypt are quite affordable.

I have no idea what you like, big coins, little coins, etc. I like BIG coins.

But with non-silver coins (copper, brass, etc) avoid bronze disease. Patchy, bright green spots. That's really bad. That's different from patina.

Greek is going to be more expensive, generally speaking, unless you go for AE's or the tiny silver fractions. A large silver tetradrachm is going to go for over $200, and that's for the 'cheap' rulers.

Oh, and once you pick what period you want, may I suggest investing around $35 for a pdf copy of the relevant issue of David Sear's Roman Coins and their Values book? Available from Spink Publishing. Volume IV (235-280's) isn't available in pdf. Really helpful guide.

I wouldn't recommend the 5th century coins. The interesting ones are super expensive and the affordable ones are largely little pencil-eraser sized coins, about 10mm. wide.

 

Oh, if you're doing faces, Nero from the Lugdunum mint. My avatar is a large sestertius from said mint. It cost $425 (and has a tiny hole) in 2010, so it shows that the Sestertii aren't cheap.

A middle bronze from his reign in this condition might be had for $275, if you're really lucky.

I did notice a few decrepit silver Denarii for sale for $75-100. (vcoins search).

If you're going for the 'wow' factor, you might be able to find a silver Tetradrachm of one of the Seleucid kings (like Antiochus III or Demetrius/Demetrios I for $300. Large coin, 3-D high relief. Really impressive. The Seleucid kings past the 120's BC don't really have super-impressive coins.

Oh yeah, dirty little secret. It's cheaper than collecting American coins, if one knows what one's doing.

 

I don't collect ancients, but enjoy reading your posts.

 

thanks for the extra feedback Nero. Just the kind of mental grist I was looking for. I always get a coin for my birthday (late January) and had $450 in my fund but found the perfect coin for $150. Usually roll it over to my spring collecting but i need the mental challenge now. I have nothing set in stone but will give your idea of more expensive coins consideration. thanks again for sharing your knowledge. James

 

Thank you, really kind of you! I'm just a regular guy who's always been interested in ancient history. There are many on numisforums who write much more eloquently than I, and have much better collections than I do.

I'd like to learn a little more about American coins. I'd eventually like to get one Morgan dollar, not for investment, but personal enjoyment.

I'm not really into machine-made coins, and opportunity cost really gets in the way. One pretty Morgan, with nice toning, would be nice.

It also doesn't hurt that collecting ancients (relatively speaking,if one's not going after the super-expensive genres) is cheaper than collecting American coins.

Ancient/medieval history is so interesting. I'd really, really recommend listening to the Totalus Rankium podcast about Justinian II. He led such a storybook, Game of Thrones type life.

 

Check http://augustuscoins.com/ Its run by a member here, @Valentinian and was the site I started at.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/ is also a spot I use often for ancients.

Finally, https://mrbcoins.com/ is another one I use. They all have good coins in my price range and I have had no problems from any of the 3 so far. Augustus coins also has the benefit of providing a lot of educational material that Valentinian has assembled.

 

I agree. Forum is a good one. Marc Breitsprecher is a great guy, and offers great/super-fast service. However, a lot of his coins are from older collections, which tend to have stripped patinas. I've bought a pretty decent amount from Mr. B over the years.

I now buy most of my coins from European/foreign dealers. While the shipping may be higher, ranging from $15-25+, one can generally find coins a bit cheaper for good quality, and they tend to offer better patinas. The shipping might even out the cost savings, but I'm the thriftiest person known to man, and I've been ordering from European dealers a whole lot.

London Ancient Coins has a fantastic selection. I've been satisfied with 99% of my transactions with them, but the cons are that I'm miffed at them for sending me a coin which broke in transit due to some recent shippingshortcuts, and their customer service has never been great (still no reply from them, two weeks later). They're also mildly slow at shipping good out. However, they have some really nice coins at affordable prices. There's a 98% chance that there would be a successful outcome.

If I could only recommend one European house,it would be Savoca. Sure,you'll be spending c. $25 for shipping, but it's really fast and there are many nice and affordable coins there, especially in the Greek section. Order-to-door, Germany to the U.S (via FedEx), about 3-6 days.

Zurqieh from Dubai also has a lot of neat stuff. Shipping is really cheap and efficient (fast) from Dubai. The downside; most of his stuff is semi-uncleaned and you kind of have to know what you're doing. His descriptions are pretty threadbare. The shipping is only around $5-7. Order-to-door in the U.S., around 1.5 to 2 weeks.

Something I forgot. Samclemens, you can snag a nice, large silver Tetradrachm from Antioch of Nero for under $200. The portrait isn't as nice as Rome/Lugdunum, but it's an impressive silver coin and many ofthe portraits are pretty decent. A nice one runs about $150-200.