How did you become a collector of ancient coins?

Now why didn't I think of that

 

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Unfortunately, the larger Klazomenai winged boar coins are usually relatively pricey. Silver Pigasi of denarius diameter are less common than diobols.

Drat! I used to scour each upcoming auction for the larger denominations of Klazomenai (6 gm, upwards) because I want one to fill out my Klazomenai winged boar denomination set. I haven't been diligent about it lately. Somehow I missed a decent one in a CNG auction just a couple of months ago. It sold relatively cheaply.

 

chrsmat71
Very good russian coppers with cabinete patina. Now we have 99% of copper coins market with the origin from under detectorists coils. My favorite russian copper originate from hoard too. But this realy "heavy" copper

 

It's a great luck to live on the motherland with the great history coming back until ancient times. This two coins from Olbia also from one hoard. They are in general out of my "electrum" interests. But I live in Kiev at the banks of river Dnepr (ancient Borysphen), so this coins with the face of river god Borysphenes - must to have.

 

I literally just received one of those in the mail today! Mind if I share?


Olbia, Sarmatia
Æ25, 10.5g, 12h; 3rd-2nd centuries BC.
Obv.: Horned, bearded head of river god Borysthenes (Dnieper) left.
Rev.: Bow in case and battle axe; OΛBI to right, API to left.

 

I_v_a_n,

Excellent question with a lot of similar reasons and histories out there. I would say that my story is fairly simple, stemming from a deep childhood craving for things that did not exist in a modern Southern California suburb where the oldest building dated to 1932. My interest in coins began when my father would take me to the bank to pick up silver dollars from the 1880’s, which counts as ancient when you are 7 years old. Coin collecting was an on and off interest that went dormant for about 45 years until I took a vacation in Spain 3 years ago. I’ve always been very interested in history and was surprised at the availability of these coins and even more surprised at their affordability. That was the moment that I went to the dark side.

Collecting ancients satisfies my history cravings and I have to echo what many say about how amazing it is to hold a coin that someone used 2,000 years ago to buy food, wine or whatever. Additionally, it provides a very tangible cultural connection to the distant past, which compared to the rest of the world, is in short supply in California.

 

At the time I was into all AV period coins (which is still true today)
Then I got an auction catalogue sent to me from NFA....rest is history. My favorites are definately Imperial Roman/Byzantine AV/AR coins

John

 

Jwt708,
Very good "borysphenes". Yours dated about 290-250 BC. I think yours originate from another find. But sometimes hoards are terrible huge. This one of Pantikapeum tetrakhalkons was find several years ago. I have two coins from this amphora And I think a lot of forum's members have a coins from this amphora too.

 

I don't have any with that reverse, mine:

 

I came to ancient coins by way of love for the history behind them.

When I was a kid the three major TV networks used to broadcast epic specials called miniseries. Many of these were historical in their settings and took place during the Roman empire (I Claudius, Masada, The Last Days of Pompeii, A.D.). Despite the cheesy nature of a few of them, I was inspired to read about Roman history, particularly the Flavian Dynasty (the Masada and Pompeii miniseries were particularly influential). And of course Suetonius was an eye-opener!

Many years later I realised one could actually collect the coins the Romans actually used. A whole new world had opened up before my eyes! I haven't looked back since.

 

I became a collector just over 11 years ago when I bought this coin for $22 at a parade in Rhode Island (6mm, 1.40g). I've been utterly hooked ever since, and consider it a fair price for admission. Normally I wouldn't recommend making a coin into jewelry, but since this one is sentimental and otherwise worthless, I just might. I still get that tingly feeling when I look at it.

By the way, I never did attribute it even though I looked through pages of Wildwinds for several nights. Does anyone know what Late Roman Emperor had these three figures on the reverse?

 

Tesorillo's pages can be a great help with LRBs. Here's the result of searching by reverse type> "multiple emperors" > three emperors

http://www.tesorillo.com/aes/047/047i.htm

If this is correct, the three reverse figures are emperors Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius II. All three issued coins with this reverse.

 

It is type 48 on this site:

http://esty.ancients.info/ricix/

 

Great topic! My ancient coin fever began when I purchased a Judaean lepton (Widow's Mite) as a gift for a friend. It snowballed from there!

 

I came into ancients by accident. I was looking up Nfld coins and somehow found myself looking at ancients. After getting a couple of junkers, I discovered the world beyond them and haven't looked back.

I'm focusing on slowly building a collection of Biblical coins, although I do get distracted sometimes.. I have a never ending amazement for holding these impressive pieces of history in my hands.

Ancient coins ftw!

Erin

 

Well, my sweet ol' Granny got me collecting Canadian coins when I was a "baby" ... yah, I'm fairly sure that she started my OCD by telling me to put her change into the correct denominations!! (RIP => Granny, you rocked!!)

... I then continued to collect each Canadian Proof and Specimen set for the next 40 years ... oh, and I also had sweet albums where I would plug-in each year's circulating coins (yah, it was slow and methodical and fricken awesome!!)

=> ooooowwww, it's a new year => soon the new coins will be arriving in our change!! (yup, those were good and fricken simple times, my friends)

... about 7 years ago, I got back into collecting Canadian notes and coins and then outta nowhere I stumbled-across a thread at CCF (*edit*) ... and the rest was history!!

=> yup, I immediately bought three coins that were accused of being fakes!!

... and I never looked back!!

 

I started collecting coins when I was about 8 or so (US plus a smattering of modern world) but gradually lost interest and stopped when I was about 13 or 14. Then, when I went away to college in 1991, I happened to find a coin shop within walking distance from campus and my interest revived. I started buying a few classic US coins and whatever interesting world coins I could afford. I especially liked looking through the junk boxes (especially the somewhat higher end or "junque" boxes) and attributing the mysterious treasures I found.

Sometime in 1992 or early 1993, the coin store got in a bunch of unattributed ancients. I decided to dive in, and picked out a few of the nicer-looking coins from the $3 and $5 boxes ( The $5 box were mostly larger diameter and included a lot of Roman Provincial, $3 was mainly LRB.) I still remember the first ancient I was ever able to attribute, a LRB of Constantius II with FEL TEMP REPARATIO reverse, soldier spearing falling horseman, mint of Sirmium.) I spent a lot of time with those cleaned but unattributed coins, learning how to read the legends and what the usual types were, and also how to use the catalogue (Sear, which only had one volume for the Roman at the time). I also started buying some other ancients, various Greek and Eastern, at the coin shop and from dealers' mail order lists requested from ads in Coin World.

It was around 1997 or so that I decided to focus mainly on Parthian coins (with the occasional Roman or other diversion). Parthian coins seemed to hit the perfect "sweet spot" of many factors: reasonably well catalogued (Shore's book had just come out, and Sellwood's numbering system was there to establish order) but with some uncertainty so it didn't feel like everything had already been discovered; the history was somewhat understood (unlike some other interesting coinages such as the Kushans) but also somewhat mysterious (consider the revisions to the king list by Assar, for example), and it frequently intersected with Roman history (I love Roman history, for its inherent interest and as a proud Italian-American); the coins exhibit considerable variety; and many types were affordable (under $100 for decent examples). At the moment, I've kind of reached an impasse with my Parthian collection- I fell like I've collected all the types I can without going broke, and I may very well sell the collection within the next year. If I do, I guess I'll have to find some new area to focus on. Maybe Sasanian, or maybe some sub-area of Roman, or...

Finally, one coin to share. Not a Parthian, but I really love this coin anyway:

Phoenicia, Sidon. AE 16. 'Abd'ashtart (c. 365-356 BC). Obverse: Phoenician galley on waves. Reverse: Horse-drawn chariot with driver and Persian king (or possibly deity dressed as Persian king).

This coin beautifully combines a stereotypical Phoenician obverse (ships appear on almost all Phoenician coins) with a very recognizably Persian reverse. And within thirty years of this coin's striking, a young Macedonian would stop by and toss some Hellenism into the cultural mix...

 

Great story about how the ancients bug got you! Similar in many ways to mine. The only real difference was that it didn't happen to me until I was closer to 58 years old.

 

This is one of the reasons I enjoy collecting Roman Provincial coins. There is still much to be discovered and learned about them . I like coins with a little mystery.