First Ancient Coin I bought for myself

We are a pretty nefarious lot, aren't we?

 

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I can only hope my love for my three main men (Jeffies, Frankies, and Ikes) will be strong enough. I know now that Roosevelt and Washington were generally lacking, though to his credit, George did try to be a bit more flashy in the past 20 years.




And I always have my Icelandic Kingdom coins

 

Everyone knows I collected moderns for years.
I still add a few every now and then. Like the recent war nickels I posted last week. Then there's the ASE's and world bullion I can't stop adding.
There's no shame in it Kasia there are some moderns that are worth holding on to.
But I like them RAW just like my ancients.

 

I like a lot of my coins raw, but because of some circumstances, I have some recently I am collecting graded and in holders. Some, like my limited Frankie collection, are all MS64/65, and only Philly issues. In slabs to make sure my eyes were not picking up sliders with raw coins, which benefits me as someone relatively new to self grading coins and attempting to have some known quantity so I get the experience of actually being able to see the flaws and overall experience of these compared to ones I might see graded higher at a show. It is part of educating myself for grading, and when I am done or pass on, they will be somewhat more easy to get sold by me or my heirs, and not just messed up because someone doesn't recognize the value. Once I started paying attention to graded coins and what might have limited it from a higher grade, I think I became more picky about buying one raw. One coin shop I sometimes went to, but usually only bought supplies at, was one where I started recognizing that many of their coins in 2x2s and marked as BU Unc coins were ones I would say were sliders or likely sliders, and that almost none of the ones graded as Gem BU would get more than a MS65. Yet their prices were strong for the presumed unc 'grade' on the 2x2. At one point they had some older Russian coins that looked great, but were not cheap that I wanted to buy, but that type of coin had known fakes, and I did not feel confident that the proprietors would be able to spot it. I could have bought them and had them graded and slabbed, but too wary they would come back bad. The somewhat limited amount of dollars I put into the common Frankies (sometimes only 15-20) were well worth actually seeing and 'handling' ones accurately graded. I learned from handling (as a child and teen) some real Prussian dishes my grandma brought from Germany in the first quarter of the 20th century that were hand-painted and being able to see the actual makers marks. These are quite valuable, and me being able to see a piece at an estate sale and immediately know from handling it if it was real or a faked one is an excellent skill, as one can quickly figure out from their price whether it is worth it to buy and resell it, and maybe say what you might profit from it as opposed to just totally wasting your money and having something that won't sell... because that is a collector's area with a lot of faked pieces, and sometimes only spotting a closely faked makers mark tells you that.

Some of my other graded ones are difficult to find ungraded and if found, having some bought graded again helps me get a better handle at differing in grading even by a grade or two. And in modern coins, that in itself will make a huge difference. Many coins have essentially no real value unless they can be a MS65 or above, and it can be a slippery slope for people who think they are able to buy raw and grade accurately yet don't do much looking at actual slabbed coins. Perhaps this is why CAC green beans are sought after.

I imagine that in ancients there are characteristics and challenges in identifying some fakes or questionable coins as well.

 

I'll let you in on a little secret as long as you don't tell anyone else on the ancient forum...deal?

I still collect Peace Dollars and am working to complete a full set. Like @Smojo I also keep adding cull silver and stacking bullion coins. The only part of collection coins I hated was the obsession over MS64 vs MS65 vs MS65+ and CAC stickers, slabbed MS70 Sliver Eagles carrying a 400% premium, PCGS vs NGC, etc etc.

With ancients that all goes away and I can enjoy the history of the coin. I can see the circulation wear as a bonus because it tells me the coin was passed between people. Maybe used to buy bread at a local market, or used to buy a cask of nails, or taken on a mission by a soldier and carried to the ends of the known earth.

 

Great thread!! I loved all the coin posts and especially the OP with so much eye-appeal!!

 

Nice pickup @Kasia !

I have never had a 'bottlecap' style coin, so I recently won this in auction... "just to have it!"

It happens to be from the Seleukid Empire also...


Seleukid Demetrios I Soter 162-150 BCE AE 17 serrate 16.8mm 3.9g Antioch on Orontes mint Horse Hd L - Elephant Hd R- SC 1646 SNG Spaer 1299-1304

 

Wow. I like!

 

Nice pick up @Kasia - a cool bottle-cap.

 

I used to go through the US pick bins when I collected modern coins.


I like getting bullion still too.

 

I started with some early US modern coins. But I've lost some interest when I found Ancients. I still check them out at the antique stores in towns I visit.



No shame in it, we welcome all... Light side, dark side, and everywhere in between... something about 50 shades of grey? Nah.

(I've got a few modern I'm interested in letting go of lol)

 

Tee hee hee

 

That horse looks sassy! Nice coin.

 

Sorry I didn't get to this thread before it was taken by the moderns but, if you are still reading it, I hope you will compare all the various examples of the elephant coin. There are several with better legends than yours but yours has really well formed bottle cap pegs and excellent eye appeal. Few people do as well for a first coin. The question now will be where you go from here. More caps? More Seleucids? Something as completely different as you can imagine???? There is no wrong answer.

 

I like that there is no wrong answer.

 

Excellent choice, Kasia! Welcome to your new addiction

 

Definitely. There’s no need be way to collect.

 

Hello Kasia, Great coin in the OP! I love these "bottlecaps."

I am old, so this was a long time ago, but I used to collect US and modern foreign, but in my mid teens I discovered ancients. I dabbled with modern stuff for while, but as time went on I devoted more and more attention to the ancients.

I still enjoy buying and selling US and modern world in my shop, but ancients are where my heart is. they make up 99.5% of what I collect now.

I say this to warn you: You have taken a dangerous step, one from which there may not be any coming back!

 

Hmmmm.

 

Don't say you weren't warned!