Just bought my first 2 ancient Roman coins...I've caught the bug.

Welcome and congrats on your first two coins!!

Hmm, Without Doug's clarification about your MA coin, I would've totally missed the Mercury/Relig AVG connection.

Since I just grabbed a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius, it seems this is an appropriate thread to post it.

Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 AD, Sestertius, Very Fine, weight 25.13 grams, reverse Salus standing left holding scepter.

 

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I think that my next purchases will be more coins of the 5 Good Emperors, or rather the four remaining ones. I watched some really good documentaries Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. I then made the connection between the movie Gladiator( 1998) and Emperor Commodus, the antagonist in the story. I didn't even know that that movie was loosely based on history.

But I do like Roman fiction also, there were a set of Ancient Roman Detective books, by a female author that I really liked. I only remember one of the titles, The Silver Pigs.

I really don't have an interest in the Late Roman era. I read about the "dirty dozen" commonly found ancient coins , that are really just common and somewhat hastily struck. So I will be staying away from those. I hope to be sharing more coins soon. I found a reputable dealer in Indianapolis, so I'll be going back there next month. Plus I have a friend in a masters Program in Archaeology, currently in TN, who I've been trading with in Moderns. His specialty is Ancient European Civilizations, so I am hoping to see his finds through email and share those pics with you guys too. The summer before I met him, he spent on a dig in Italy. A bright kid.

 

Just wait. Before you know it, you'll be buying the expensive books. What does the 10 volume set of Roman Imperial Coinage cost now? $1000? (I have 8 volumes so far and ancients are only small part of my collecting interests)

 

I do not focus on Roman Imperial Coinage, hence no need for me to spend it.

 

Only 100+ volumes of SNG. And I saw Price was $525 on a Vcoin site. I'm stuck with just Sear's GCV 1&2

 

Or, Internet. And yes, I do have several books on the areas I focus.

 

I just assume most ancient collectors are reference book people as well. So @ValpoBeginner , see what you're getting yourself into

 

The Five Good Emperors is an excellent and attainable goal which you could approach in different ways. Like the Olympics—you can go for the bronze, the silver, or the gold—or all of those. Another great and attainable collection goal would be the coins of the Three Julias.

Great to have you with us, ValpoBeginner!

 

I'd love to know which ones! I've watched the one that is on Netflix about MA and Commodus.

I just finished mine! Well I went with most of the Severan dynasty while I was at it; including all 4 Julias! I decided not to do the wives of Caracalla and Elagabalus though... $$$ Maybe someday. I also did the Antonine dynasty.

 

I've anticipated the costs associated with this venture and I am happily acquainted with my local bookseller and also our local librarians. There is no substitute for paper books, in my opinion.

I've got quite a few books on American coins. Can you or anyone else recommend a Standard Catalog style book on Ancient Roman coins? (A guide that most Ancient Roman coin collectors have in their collection) (something akin to The Red Book). ?

 

The documentaries were lectures probably available on YouTube although I watched it on Amazon Prime Video. Its part of a collection called "THE GREAT COURSES". It's narrated by professors who are considered experts in their fields and has all subjects, from Science, Technology, History, Mathematics, Linguistics, etc.

Most of the courses are entertaining as well as thorough, and are not as dry as you might expect. Most even offer visual aids, both video and pictures and are not pure facts, the professors often offer speculation based on the facts.

I happened to watch a section of a course on Ancient History (the course is divided into several 1 hour segments). I believe that the one I watched was called Imperial Rome.

 

One of the great things about the hobby is you can collect according to any plan you like or no plan at all. I have absolutely no use for concepts like the 5 'good' emperors which some people used to collect as the 'Adoptive Emperors' but I really think it better if you expand it a bit and include Lucius Verus and Commodus even if they don't pass your standards for quality or DNA.

I really do encourage taking a look at the reverse of any coin you get. Some are interesting. Someday you might decide it is OK to have more than one coin of one ruler or maybe 500 if you get a serious case of the ancient plague. Also avoid yelling too loudly what you don't collect. I did not collect Late Roman for the first thirty years I collected ancients but I got over that. I limited myself to Greek and Roman for longer than that. I got over that, too. Just silver? No silver? Only Imperials? Only Republicans? Provincials? Colonials? (Who knows the difference?) You might even assemble a 'Type' set with just one coin from each category of ancient that someone out there collects as a specialty. That would be at least 500 coins. Don't buy what you don't like. Someone else will.

 

Nice to see another collector from my home town
You mentioned above a dealer in Indy, but may I suggest one even closer?. Harlan Berks in downtown Chicago. The trick is when you walk into the store it appears they have very little in ancients, but if you ask they will send you up to the 13th floor office, there you will find a selection that will literally stun you for the quantity and the quality of the coins. And if your lucky Harland himself will be the one showing you the coins, he's a really nice guy and his knowledge of ancients is astounding.

 

Nice to see some fellow Hoosiers in Ancients. Of course, I have not lived there in 40 years...

 

I am very familiar with Harlan J. Berk, most of my coins were purchased from them. I agree a very classy establishment!

 

Welcome to ancients - I really like that Mercury Marcus Aurelius (thanks for the info, Doug - I had no idea). Lovely coin and interesting backstory.

When I lived in Chicago I used to walk down to Harlan Berk's on my lunch hour and just drool at his display window from the sidewalk (it probably still has my nose-prints). I'd never seen anything like it. Couldn't afford anything either.

As for dealers I might suggest, on your way to Indianapolis from Valpo, stopping by A-Z Coins in Fort Wayne. They have a small but interesting selection of ancients (I have no connection beyond being a collector). Whenever I'm in the area I stop by and sometimes get some good stuff, even on my budget. Paid $18 for the Commodus denarius (Gladiator!) and $10 for the Faustina II as - not bad for coin shop pricing:

 

Be prepared for this bug to develop into a raging fever.

 

Welcome to the list, Valpo, and to the world of ancients. I taught for a few years at the University there. You wouldn't be a Crusader would you?

So far in this thread no one has spoken to your coin of Diocletian. It is an antoninianus (double denarius) minted at the second officina (workshop) at Rome in 285-286 A.D. The reverse bears the IOVI CONSERVAT AVGG inscription which calls for the blessing of Jove (Jupiter) upon the two Augusti (Diocletian and Maximian) early in the formation of the first Tetrarchy. It features Jove bearing a thunderbolt and scepter, but I will leave it to you to figure out why.

We'll come back to that, but first a word of welcome.

A fascination with History. Many people use the collecting of ancients to do Archaeology on the cheap. Sadly, this collecting field is not without condemnation from the corps of professional archaeologists. I mention it because you mentioned having a friend in TN who is in Archaeology. I hope your collecting interest will not come between you as his expertise and credentials grow. But if you are an aspiring professional in certain fields, you might want to keep the coins under your hat - for you would not be the first to go down in flames over your hobby.

The good news is that ancient coins are endlessly fascinating at more than one level. Collecting by emperor is the basic historical approach. But Roman coins can also be collected by emperor and reverse types. Or, more deeply, by mint. Unlike modern coins, tiny detail differences were assigned to different mints and used to differentiate their products. Deeper yet, some of the coins can be differentiated by officina, that is, the workshops within a mint that did the actual production. The easiest to differentiate and collect by mint and officina are those Late Roman Bronzes you said are "really just common." Yes, if only collected by emperor; no, if collected by mint and officina. For the first half of the 4th century there were as many as 16 mints operating at the same time, all of them divided into anywhere from 2 to 11 officinae. Learning the "tells" for an issue can be enormously fascinating and satisfying, or frustrating as all get out, depending on your temperament.

The biggest task you have right now is learning how to read what is on a coin, no matter how messed up it may be. That will take a year or so if you stay with one issue; longer if you move around between issues. The best starter book for that is by Zander Klawans, Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins. Buy it, and then read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. Stay with it, and you will be amazed at how much you can discover.