Perhaps starting to dabble in Ancients. What is a good start?

I have a couple ancients courtesy of @Jwt708, who a few years go sent me some in exchange for some military POGs while I was deployed. I really enjoy them but between the deployments, family, and my CRH'ing, I didn't get to deep dive into them. Well, for now the deployments are done and my CRH'ing has come to an abrupt end so I am thinking that now is perhaps the time to jump in.

I am not really sure where to start though. Where is a good place to buy them? What is a decent price?(Not looking to spend a ton at first) Are there good sites that I can use for research? Should I lean towards cleaned/vs uncleaned coins for a good start?

Basically any info you all would like to share would be greatly appreciated. If you want to share some of your favorite ancients here I'd sure like to see them. I will work on taking pictures of mine as well to share.

Thanks!

 

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I hope I am not breaking forum rules here. My head isn't square today with my dog in the hospital...... I am like you. I am all into US coinage but had the urge to dabble in some ancients. A member here @Victor_Clark has a website that you can spend days on. I have made several purchases from him. The coins come fully attributed. And most are quite affordable. Choose an area that interests you and dive in. I think I am not supposed to post a sale website so I will PM it to you. The photo below is the presentation they arrive to you in. Makes it easy for us US collectors!

 

There are numerous outlets on the web for both auction and fixed price sales. Maybe pick out a time period to focus on to get started or you can do what many collectors do and attempt to get a coin from each emperor, prince, and augusta. That's a nice goal and helps organize one's collecting activities. Welcome to ancients!

 

I find it most interesting to collect ancients of people I can read about as having the coin on front of me in hand goes well with reading about the person. In Greek coins those of Alexander the Great are relatively common. Have one in front of you as you engage the Persians at Issus or burn Persepolis or learn to combat elephants on the Hydapses. While books on Julius Caesar are common, his coins are not, so learn more about Constantine, whose coins are common, as you read about the Milvian bridge and search the skies for a sign of divine favor. Later on you can collect the Twelve Caesars and peruse the abundant reading material on them. Collect and read. That is what makes ancients the joy that they are.

 

There are a lot of threads on this site geared toward helping newbies get started. Here's just one:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/scared-about-collecting-ancients.312927/

Use the Search feature to find others!

 

Some of his bronze coins are very common, while some are excruciatingly rare. At least one is known from a single example; while other types number in the thousands. I have a page with over 100 reverse types in bronze for Constantine.

http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/types/

 

Common denarii from the first and second centuries AD are a good choice. They often depict people who are extremely famous, such as Vespasian:



Trajan:



Hadrian:



Marcus Aurelius:



And Commodus:



Moreover, they are silver, available for less than $100 in F or VF, and they were the standard silver denomination used in Rome for centuries. They are mentioned in the Bible as the standard day's wages for a laborer* and it's therefore easy to imagine their purchasing power in their time.

*For example, Matthew 20:2: συμφωνήσας δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἐργατῶν ἐκ δηναρίου τὴν ἡμέραν ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα αὐτοῦ. ("And after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.")

 

Mr Frog, there was a post from @red_spork with some ancients he is parting with if you didn't happen to see it. It looked like a starter set but then again I know squat about ancients. Just an FYI.

 

Welcome to the group. Ancient coins are interesting and the more you put into it the more you get out. Before getting your feet wet I would..
1. Look around places like V Coins or MA Shops. Get a feel for what is out there. See what you like. See what is out there in your comfort zone.
2. Read a bit about the history. Wikipedia usually has good write ups on individuals, places or events. Try to acquire some of the numismatic literature relevant to what interests you.
3. Go to shows and try to find local coin clubs or numismatic societies. Here you may find like minded people who will share your interest and sometimes give you good advise.
4. Buy the nicest coin that you can afford. Try to establish fairly early on the minimum standard you want for your collection. If it is F, VF or even EF establish that benchmark and then stick to it.
5. Have fun

 

This photo shows a few of my favorites.

Explanations and reverses are found on my website along with more of my opinions than anyone cares to see.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/


As far as where and what to buy, the first step is to decide what you want to collect. That is a very hard question since you probably have little idea what exists and how to put into words a reasonable answer to the question "What do you want to collect?" Many of my pages were written to help new collectors form their answers to that question. I suggest this series:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/voc.html

My favorite place to buy coins is from friends who happen to also be dealers or collectors. If you hang around here long enough, you may make some friends.

My favorite friends tend to work on their coin photos. They make it a lot easier to share, learn and talk about coins.

 

Before buying a coin. Before buying a book about coins. Buy a book about ancient history.

There are many excellent beginners' books about Roman history, for example, for under $10.



Unless ancient history captures your interest, your interest in collecting ancient coins will quickly die off.

Once the history piques your interest, however, the passion will be with you forever.

 

I love history which is kind of what got me into coins in the first place. Even older US coins have great stories to tell I think.

Imagining the person who held/used an ancient coin and what their daily life was like and what was going on in the world at that time is amazing.

 

Glad to see you getting ready to jump in! My initial approach was to find coins that interested me in some way. Military themes were an easy start. Religious imagery always interests me like altars, temples, tools, god's, mythological creatures, etc. Maybe animals interest you? How about "impressive" coins like the large issues from the Ptolemies or the super tiny Greeks?

I suggest you just sort of look around at posts here, check out some of the links provided, and explore what interests you. No right answer. My collection spans from 460 BC to AD 1180 from a variety of regions and empires. There are some very advanced collectors here that specialize in ancient Eastern coins. I can shoot off some to shop from...eBay seller jzvarious (@John Anthony ), @Valentinian 's store, http://augustuscoins.com , Civitas Galleries, and FORVM Ancient Coins (bit pricey but great resource). Of course there are two vCoins sellers I would not hesitate to buy from - @Ken Dorney and @Victor_Clark who both engage here and are prior service. Also check out @Brian Bucklan 's shop at http://www.bargainbinancients.com/ Feel free to message me anytime!

 

Thanks man! I really do like those coins you sent, dang was that 3 years ago almost?!?! My son also loves them. He wants to get some ancients of his own but is also interested in wheat cents and roll hunting. I would like to learn more before a) I really go all in and b) before I let him go all in. I think they are great teaching tools though (history in the palm of your hand).

 

When I started I wanted everything . Still do, but it is tempered by refined tastes and budget.

Initially I planned on just buying "uncleaned" coins because at that time, learning to identify and attribute coins was the most fun part. The reality of "uncleaned lots" set in though. They aren't really "uncleaned", they've been cleaned enough so that the multitude of middlemen have been able to determine that the coin isn't worth much or that it won't clean up well. This is a generalization but is true for the majority of "uncleaned" coins you'll find.

Also, having come from a family who collected old US coins by removing them from circulation, the idea of paying money for a coin was really weird but since I wasn't going to find an ancient coin in circulation...

One thing led to another. Rapidly led to another One of the most fun things early on was buying several large lots at auction. Most of the coins weren't attributed so it provided great entertainment and education. As the experienced collectors predicted, most of those mixed lot coins are not things I will keep in my collection long term but that doesn't mean they weren't valuable to me.

Here's the story: http://www.tifcollection.com/how-i-became-interested-in-ancient-coins

There is plenty of good advice in this thread. There is not one right way to go about it. Try browsing auctions (upcoming and closed) to see what's out there (https://www.numisbids.com/ and https://www.sixbid.com/ are good for that). Browse Vcoins for currently available fixed price coins. Stay away from eBay until you get some experience or dealer recommendations from CoinTalk users-- eBay is chock full of fakes.

Start with coins that are inexpensive relative to your disposable income.

 

This! So much this! I have found so many cool US coins in circulation. The only thing I've paid more than face value for has been silver (never more than melt value) and gold (only small premiums above melt). Even $15 seems like a lot to spend on a coin to me. I know I will need to temper what I want (everything) with a proper budget. I think that's the scariest part. I see all the posts in the ancient forums and drool but I can't ever come close to getting them all haha.

 

I used to think "buy the book before the coin" but there really is so much information freely available on the internet about collecting ancient coins one can get a solid start. Any of the sellers I mentioned will have coins available that you can have faith in authenticity and back up their coins. No need to go all in, just dabble and buy things that speak to you historically or astheticly.

 

It is too bad that Dansco does not make their "Ancient Coins Typeset" album anymore. It was a great help to new collectors, but a little unwieldy at 125,000 pages long...

 

Haha

 

I've always felt that one of the great things about collecting ancients is that there are wonderful coins available for every budget.

Last year, we had a series of threads where our members here showed ancient coins they had bought recently in various budget ranges. You might like to check out some of the threads, which are all linked in this index thread:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-your-budget-buys-index-thread.303991/