Oh you ancient guys are tricky....

So, I just posted last week about some of my US collection. I specifically said I like ancients and been watching the ancient forums but don't know enough about them to get started yet.

Which several people replied:

And why do I bring this up here. Because this weekend I had some time to kill and I was traveling up in mid Michigan I seen a sign on a small shop on coins. I decided to stop in and see what he had. He was a very nice guy, he had quite a few coins from the US and some world coins, but he also has ancients. He said Ancients are really his specialty. I told him, I primarily do US, and then I have a few world coins that I only have because I like the design on them. I explained to him the same thing, I didn't really know enough about ancients. But I love the stories about the coins. So I was picking through the coins he had and was going to buy a few. You tricky little tempting ancient guys you. He made me a deal since I was buying some. Any of his low end Ancients which were marked as $7-$8 he would give me for $5, which he actually went down to 4$. And he could tell me the story of the coin and the ruler. This is what sold it.

So now I have my first ancient.

Ok for 4$ is is not in the best of condition but still you can see everything visible. Sorry I do not have any pictures, my cell phone is just not good at getting the pictures of this. I will try again tonight.

So my first ancient, Bronze, Julian II AE 3 with a reverse Wreath enclosing VOT/X/MVLT/XX

The coins though is very similar shape to this one, maybe a little rougher on the edges. http://www.coinproject.com/coin_detail.php?coin=302216

The story that sold me was he was raised as a Christian but became a pagan that rejected Christianity. Also attempted to make it appear as crazy and silly in an attempt to bring Rome back to it's original values. Also I am not sure if it is true or not but he was one of the first Emperors in a very long time to return to putting a beard on his coin as this was again in a defiance of Christianity. He was also the last non Christian emperor. Not only this but was a philosopher and author with some of his writings still in existence today.

A very good write up from Magnus Maximus already done here at coin talk.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/julian-ii-siliqua.266971/

I am actually still researching and reading more on Flavius Claudius Julianus as I had never really heard of him. He only reigned for a short time after the death of Constantius in which he was killed by a Persian spear. However there is even controversy in his death as one one side the Pagans claimed he was assassinated by Christians. Later Christian historians claimed that Julian was killed by Saint Mercurius allowing Christianity to return to Rome.

Ok, hopefully you can see why I kind of like the guy. So I will probably be looking passively for another Julian II coin some day. I also sit there and think, imagine this coin which was struck somewhere in 361-363 A.D. made its way to the middle of Michigan, only for me to find it totally on a fluke where I seen a sign that said coins and stopped in. The owner made me a great offer and I took it home with me. That's 1653 years of traveling to end up with me.

Alas, I begin down the dark side of Ancients.

On a side note. What books on Ancients would you recommend? I need to learn more about the coins themselves.

 

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Where's the image of the coin?

 

Welcome aboard, @JeffsRealm .

Pictures or it didn't happen

 

LOL, ok but can't guarantee the quality of the pictures. My cell phone doesn't like to focus in that close. Will see what I can take tonight.

 

Bless you for taking that first step! I did so not too long ago myself and now I have about 30 or so. I haven't totally switched from US to The Dark Side coins but I do like a lot of the ancients. Some are slabbled and others are raw. Lots of history in those. Enjoy and decide what type you want to collect. It's a lot of choices.

 

I'm an enabler of the worst kind. I be pimping them ancient coins, yo! Welcome to the dark side. Now show us a pic.

 

We know the addiction so we like to tempt other collectors. They're like potato chips, once you get one you gotta have more.

 

Here it is my first ancient. Sorry phone is not the best but all I got right now. Plus in plastic holder.

 

Can't argue with that for $4.

 

Good pickup JeffsRealm, but after while those tricky ancient guys are going to ask you to photograph it and your other buys outside its plastic holder to reduce glare. But you can't go wrong not spending much at first until you get an idea of there worth. Also if you can pick up some cheap catalog's that will help as well.

 

Yeah....if you could come over to the dark side...that'd be great.

 

Odd, because some folks just don't feel comfortable coming over to the dark-side ...



=> but welcome aboard ... the coins are amazing!!

 

Welcome here !

Q

 

Here's one. I don't have my records in front of me to share the price, but it was more than $4 but not expensive:


Julian II, AD 360-363
AE3, 21mm, 2.6g, 12h; Heraclea mint: 361-363
Obv.: D N FL CL IVLIANVS P F AVG; helmeted, cuirassed bust left holding spear and shield.
Rev.: VOT / X / MVLT / XX - Legend within wreath // HERACLA

I would like to get one of Julian's with a bull on the reverse because of the pagan symbolism.

As far as books it is not so cut and dry as getting a Red Book of ancients. Also there is lots of good information freely available on the internet. Check FORVM Ancient Coins for some of their Collector 101 articles.

 

Beautiful coin!

 

That was a good deal for 4$. You can still make out the mintmark, TCON, if I'm not mistaken, i.e. minted at Arles. A.D. 360 to 363, like it says in the cardboard holder, though I think the VOT X issue has been dated to late 362/early 363.

 

I paid $6 for each of these:

 

Thanks, I am working on the photography. I have an older DSLR camera, however it is really a pain to use. It takes great pictures but being older the software to transfer the photos doesn't work anymore. So moving them over is a long and painful process. So I tend to wait until its full before moving them.

Can you give me an idea of what catalogs you are referring to? I did some google searching and Littleton has Ancient Roman album with a small guide. Kind of like a book for the whats what of coins.

Thanks, I seen the bull coin as well, I liked it for the same reason. It is something I will have an eye out for now as well. I have found the FORVM Ancient Coins when looking for a lot more information on the coin I purchased. I also found http://www.coinproject.com/ which I thought was a good reference as well.

However I am a pretty avid reader, while I was pretty sure there is no Redbook for Ancient coins, I actually did read the Redbook cover to cover. I actually enjoyed it. I did skip over long lists of prices as I view those as reference material which I do refre to those charts time to time. Everything else about the coins, production and mintages and sets and medals and things I did read. However, I was looking for a good recommendation in books which would also be good reading. Like for example Ancient Coin Collecting series by Wayne G Sayles? Any good? Good place to start filling my head with information? David Sear has a series of books as well. Just curious if these were good to kind of fill my head with a lot of information to really get started. I know experience is the best teacher but just kind of looking at a good starting point which will supply me with some information. I view putting the information in my head as part of the joy of collecting as well.

 

There are many, many books on ancient coins out there. Many are references which, while in some ways are similar to the redbook, can quickly get very expensive and are of limited use to beginners, especially in the age of sites like WildWinds. A few books that I'd recommend for a beginner are Howgego's "Ancient History from Coins" and Sear's older single volume "Roman Coins and Their Values". Howgego's is a good intro to learning history from coins and Sear's book is a good way to get exposed to a large number of Roman coins, as well as some background on the types, and to get ideas of their relative values without breaking the bank. Sayles' "Classical Deception" and Hendin's "Not Kosher" are good books on counterfeits as well. Neither are exactly the book I want on counterfeits, which would be a much more in depth study of the modern methods used and their detection(neither book goes too deep on the subject) but I don't think this book I want exists, so these are the best I've found so far.

Now if you enjoy reading, I'd be remiss to neglect mentioning Doug Smith's and Warren Esty's ancient coin websites. Both are full of a lot of good information and observations on ancients and are a good way to get exposed to a wide variety of types as well as multiple facets of collecting(I.e. interesting mint errors and variations).