Please welcome our latest Roman Imperial collector!

Great advice, re VCoins, learning sites, etc. Agreed, Ancients collectors eschew the silly slabs. That is just a marketing ploy. I enjoy ancient History, so that was a rich source of knowledge and inspiration to hunt and capture my coins. Again, I really don’t focus on Roman Imperial coinage (too boring, reminds me of the repetitious series of machine manufactured same coin, different year, different mint…). I DO have around 150 of the various Roman Emperors, Usurpers, their Wives, and Children. So I cover most of the Western Empire.

I was in manufacturing for 50 years, so for my Hobby, I love the hand made dies, and the true pounding out of precious metal coinage from the Ancient Times. As I grew collecting Roman Republic coins, I moved to the Empires and entities that fought with Rome. I further branched in several other Civilizations too… all super fun Ancient Coins to collect.

Here is a Shekel from before all the Wars with Rome...


Carthage - Zeugitana
AR Shekel-Didrachm
360-264 BCE
Tanit
Horse r, head l, palm in background
SNG COP 141



PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire.
Darios I to Xerxes II.
Circa 485-420 BC.
AV Daric (14mm, 8.30 g). Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint.
Persian king or hero, wearing kidaris and kandys, quiver over shoulder, in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left /
Incuse punch.
Carradice Type IIIb, Group A/B (pl. XIII, 27);
Meadows, Administration 321; BMC Arabia pl. XXIV, 26.

Twenty-five drachmas equals one Daric


This guy was speculated that sent an army / led the army to fight on the side of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium...

INDO-GREEK KINGDOM Zoilos II Circa 50-40 BCE AR drachm 17mm 2.3g Athena Alkidemos l monograms Antony Actium SNG ANS 1654-1658

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Nice! My only Sestertius is a Claudius/Constantiae
Claudius Æ As. Struck circa 41-50 AD. TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP, bare head left / CONSTANTIAE AVGVSTI S-C, Constantia, helmeted and in military dress, standing left, holding long spear in left hand. Cohen 14. RIC 95

 

Wow! Nice As!

mine:
CLAUDIUS


RI Claudius 41-54 Ae As 28mm LIBERTAS AVGVSTA holding pileus S-C RIC 113

And his ill-fated son…

Judaea Claudius w-Britannicus CE 41-54 Æ Prutah 17mm 2.8g Antonius Felix-procurator Dated RY 14 54 CE 2-crossed shields spears - Palm tree BPIT K AI L IΔ date Hendin 1348

 

I'm sorry no one has answered your question. And I'm not sure there's one right answer to it but in my opinion I think this is a bit of a storm in a teacup. The 12 caesars is an arbitrary thing. It came about because a famous Roman historian wrote about the first 12 emperors. That's just when he happened to live. Had he lived another decade it would've been 13.

Anyway, there were a total of 96 emperors (including usurpers) from the time of Octavian up until the fall of Rome in 476. So for a collector like me who used to try to complete a collection of Wheat pennies from 1909-1959 the most natural goal when getting into ancients was to try for one of each of these guys. Or go big - the enchilada as you call it - and get the full set including all the wives and kids who also appeared on the coins. That's 191 in total. And yeah, impossible as has been noted already BUT, as has also been noted, the fun is in seeing how close you can get.

I'm at 75% complete in a year and a half of collecting. 90% is within fairly easy reach. You do need a generous budget though to get to that level. A very generous budget. But 50%? Yeah, piece of cake.

Here's a snapshot of my collection as of today.

 

Gorgeous collection, @raiselsuarez !

 

Many thanks to my enabler..... I mean my friend @lordmarcovan !! Vespasian has just arrived and my twelve Caesars journey has just begun..... I am also posting a photo of the dealers business card. I thought that was pretty cool... Thank you, Rob!

Vespasian



Business Card

 

Wow, impressive collection @rasielsuarez .

I'm nowhere near that & I've been collecting ancients for 42 years! Of course on a low engineer's salary, it takes a lot longer.

Hi @Randy Abercrombie
I used to collect US type also but gave it up as a manipulated market and too adverse in terms of $/ rarity & importance. Once in a great while, I'll still try to snip at a cheaper, pretty US coin but it's 90% ancients & the rest "interesting world" for me.

I may have even had your avatar coin. I once had an 1877-S half in PCGS-63. Hope to see you at the NYINC.

Rather than try to arrange an orderly template, I've arranged many of my coins into a historical website i programmed myself in HTML.
coinsandhistory.com

 

Vitellius has arrived. Two Caesars down. Ten to go.



I been thinking I want to display them in a case along the lines of these board game boxes. Have a dozen felt squares on top for the Caesars to reside in and some space underneath to stash away future emperors that I may add down the road.

 

Rasiel Gratz on quite the accomplishment thus far brother. Thoroughly enjoyable going thru the additions you have added to date and the masterclass representative examples of them. Humbling. I have been collecting the whole enchilada slowly and find it refreshing seeking the harder emperors and empresses out. Finished the the 12 a while ago in silver, as well as a few other sets, but it is work in progress as I am always exchanging them out for a better example xD. Super impressed with the quality of the harder imperials you were able to acquire! Are you finding it a trial seeking out nice examples of Gordian I and II? Or are they just not a priority?

note: also lurker here and first poster but have been an ancients collector for a little over 15yrs. Aloha!

 

Thanks to all here who said nice things about my collection. I don't expect to hold on to it for much longer so I expect you'll have at chance at them soon :- )

Both! I always felt the first two Gordies were overpriced relative to their rarity. The entry point is ever stiff but they're always easily available so someday when I tire of seeing the holes in the set I'll bite the bullet. I actually have a half-hearted bid on the Triton one coming up.

What really gets my jollies are the rare usurpers like Constans II, Uranius Antoninus, etc. Pretty underwhelming selection for this season. Sign of things to come?

 

That's such a great follow up to the story, Rob. I've seen Randy's enthusiasm escalate from uncertainty, to a bit of fear, to confidence, to throwing caution to the wind. Congrats on your new found love of the hobby.

I guess you can lead all horses to water, but only some will drink

 

I guess y’all haven’t noticed that I am not what one would typically refer to as a “patient feller”…..

 

I applaud your persistence and sincerity in your tutelage. Who knows, maybe you'll wear me down.