Please welcome our latest Roman Imperial collector!

When I kidnapped - drafted - um - recruited Randy, I did suggest two directions he could go in. The first was “the whole enchilada” - that uncompletable, “get as many different ones as you can” approach. Which I agree is fun. The most fun, in my opinion. I called mine "A to Z" - Augustus to Zeno.

(BTW, I love those posters- had one when I started out. Are those your work, Rasiel? From the Dirty Old Coins endeavor? I visited DOC fairly often when I was a novice.)

That "big option" - the "one of everything you can find and afford" is a learning adventure. Attempting it in 2007-08 taught me most of what I know about Roman history.

But it can be a huge leap for someone who's coming from the world of traditional US coin collecting, where the date and mint combinations fall into tidy, finite "sets".

For this reason, I also suggested a second option to Randy where he could try the Twelve Caesars and have a short, completable (if challenging) set to work on. I know he's got the financial wherewithal and I think he will have the passion for it. The learning curve will give him headaches but I have confidence in him there, too.

And that's the option he chose. The 12C. Think of it as an introductory or transitional phase.

There's always time for him to move on and try to bite into "the whole enchilada" later, after he's cut his teeth on the 12C.

(I suppose I could have alternately suggested an even shorter set to start with: The Five Good Emperors. But there would not have been so much challenge in that.)

 

They're awesome. When my friend Michael Swoveland (@Aethelred) opened his WNC Coins shop in Asheville, NC, I sent him several of the posters. They're still up on the shop wall in front of his display cases.

 

No, you've got it. The 12 Caesars are indeed a subset of the other option, which is... well, everything. The 12 Caesars are Julius Caesar, followed by the first eleven emperors of the Roman empire (see the list of reference links I put in the first post).

And they can be a good starting point, for one to explore further...

The "everything" option - one of every single Roman emperor (empress, usurper, etc.)- is not realistically completable by anyone, not even the likes of the British Museum. Some rare individuals are only known to history on the basis of a single coin find or two. No historical record about them survived the millennia to come down to us.

So if you pursue that "everything" option, it's pretty freestyle and open-ended. You simply go as far as you can with it- and where you want with it- and get as many representative coins as your budget and ability to find them allows. You can never complete it, so you just keep on going with it as long as it interests you (and it probably will, increasingly).

This feeling is experienced by a lot of folks. It is what held me back from collecting ancients until after I had already been a collector of other coins for 31 years. It took me that long to "graduate" to ancients because I was intimidated by all the unknown history and terminology, and the obviously enormous intellectual capacity of the people who collect in that field. And to be candid, I'm still intimidated by the scholarly types to this day. But that need not be an obstacle.

Randy too has said he was always at least mildly interested in ancients, but too intimidated to take the plunge. Sometimes one just needs a mentor, maybe. He told me he felt like a kindergartner. I assured him that in our case, me mentoring him is like a kindergartner being tutored by a third-grader!

I'm not a member of the scholarly elite and never will be. I've just learned to accept that and have fun, being a basic, general collector and a specialist in nothing. At least I can join in a few conversations on ancients without getting utterly baffled, though the braniac people will frequently lose me when they go off into the minutiae.

 

Maybe the answer is to just abandon the idea of "sets" altogether and go freestyle, as I have with my own collections. It took a while to get used to abandoning the idea of strict structure, but it was liberating, too.

When you take on a vast undertaking like the "big enchilada" of a "full" Roman emperors collection, there's room for you to make up your own sub-themes. Focus more on one particular dynasty, perhaps. Or on the animals or deities shown on the reverses. Stuff like that. There are so many different avenues to explore.

 

@masterswimmer -

You have forced my hand, sir.

That time has arrived.

Ready or not...

Here is your bait coin.

It comes with a challenge- just like I gave Randy.

You may accept or decline this quest. Only accept it if you think you're ready to expand your horizons a little bit, and learn some basic new information (don't worry- it's fun- and you'll have plenty of help).

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is a much easier one.

You are to collect one of each of The Five Good Emperors.

One down, four to go. You're 20% of the way there already.

Do you accept the mission?

 

He hasn't said "yes" yet.

I think he finally went off to bed, where a "normal" person would be at this hour.

 

@masterswimmer -

You wouldn’t be doing slabs. I know a couple of online dealer mall sites where I could send you virtual shopping without having to roll the dice on eBay.

Most if not all of the remaining four pieces you’d need could be acquired in the mid- to upper-two-figure (i.e., <$100) pricerange on the lower end, and in decent or at least acceptable shape (and maybe even nice) within a <$200/coin budget, I imagine. That bait coin I offered you, by example, was a $40 piece.

What I would propose is a private message “kindergarten” thread where you and Randy and I could gather and discuss. I’d send you off “window shopping” first, likely to VCoins. You’d view all the possibilities there, pick out a few that intrigued you, and not buy them at first, but rather, watchlist them.

You could then ask me the pros and cons (as I saw it) of each piece that interested you. Ask all your burning questions. If I can’t answer any of them, we can ask on the forum and then I’m learning along with y’all. And then you could later buy the coins (or not) on your own timeline.

You could take your time with this. VCoins is fixed price, so you’d not be dealing with the time deadline of auctions (where you wouldn’t know how much to bid anyway).

Window shop first. Put some items in your watchlist. Ask me about them. Take it slowly. Talk about it a while. Look at dozens or hundreds of coins before deciding on one. That’s how I’ve done a lot of my learning.

Russ, I’m actually impressed that you haven’t said yes to the challenge immediately, and that you’ve put some thought into your reply.

Only say yes if you think the challenge would be fun. If on the other hand you think it would be too much like boring school homework, or that it just isn’t something you imagine you’d find enjoyable, simply walk away.

I noticed your involvement on this thread and think you have the necessary intellect and curiosity, or I wouldn’t have offered you that starter coin. It’s not something I’d do for just anybody.

 

I have no idea if this quote is correctly attributed or not, but I think it is applicable here.

 

Nice one, P&G!

My own Antoninus Pius is a sestertius. It is not a high grade coin but I thought it had the ideal look for a big bronze.

Relatively speaking, it was not terribly expensive for a good looking sestertius. Even after $50-ish worth of slab fees, I’m in it for only $235. Had it been in a higher technical grade like XF or better, I’m sure it would have been much pricier.

 

Do note that while I myself am a slabber- mostly for display purposes and because the rest of my collection is slabbed- I do not necessarily recommend that to the novices in my tutelage. So you diehard traditionalists can sheathe your daggers.