Introductions

Hello all, longtime lurker but finally decided to register to say hello and post here and there. A lot of you probably know me from other forums.

I've been a lifelong coin collector, but recently (3 years ago) found my calling in ancient coins. After dabbling aimlessly, I decided to start a few projects:

Major:
- Intensive dive into Indo-Sassanian coinage; specifically trying to refine, correct and expand upon the evolutionary path of the "Gadhaiya" type put forth by Mitchiner, Deyell, and Maheshwari.
- A "one of each personage" collection of Roman Imperial portraits from Julius Caesar until at least Anastasius.

Minor:
- A dabbling type collection of Indian coinage, from Gandhara Janapada until modern (ish) times
- A meager attempt at a "one from every culture" collection, largely tapering off in the middle ages.
- Whatever shiny or cool thing grabs my attention!

To get things started, here's a group shot of some of my favorite coins in my collection! How many can you recognize?

 

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Welcome to the club!

That appears to be a fantastic assortment of coins. Can't wait for you to teach us more about them!

 

Welcome and a great group shot. You have some great coin in there.

 

Welcome!! You've got some ambitious collecting goals!

Nice group shot!

 

I can recognize many of them! My eye is attracted to the base gold “Kashmir” stater in the upper right corner. I am currently reading John Deyell’s Treasure Trade and Tradition Post Kidarite Coins of the Gangetic Plains and Punjab Foothills, 590-820CE which is entirely about this coinage.

Please keep us informed of your progress with the Gadhaiya coinage. I became interested in this coinage a few years ago. Eventually someone suggested Deyell’s book Living Without Silver which at that point was unobtainable. After my failure to acquire any literature I gave up on collecting the series beyond a few specimens.

 

Welcome @Finn235 . Thats a nice pile of coins you've got there. Reminds me that I need to do another group shot one of these days. The last time I did one was a little over a year ago to document my purchases from January to May of 2017. Here's that group shot again.

 

that center Alexander the great coin is amazing and I liked the Islamic 1 next to it too. How long did it take you to collect all those coins ? Welcome to CT.

 

Very nice coins. I like the Ptolemies and your series from Hadrian through Gordian III.

 

I hope you will post individual coins with full explanations as to what made that coin worthy of your interest. I passed through a period of interest in these back in 2011 which was when I got my copy of Deyell from a seller in India. It was not expensive but took a long time to arrive. The photo is from my web page. I would enjoy learning more about the series.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/gadpaisa.html

I would like to hear more about the silver coin just left of the Alexander and the bronze above and left of it.

 

Welcome @Finn235
Nice group shot!

I know you will enjoy your time here.

 

Welcome aboard, Finn!

 

Cool group shot. Your eastern interests are going to make a lot of the members on here pretty excited.

 

Thanks all!

The Alexander tetradrachm is the gem of my collection; a coin I had wanted since I was a child. It's a lifetime issue from Tarsus, Price 3027

 

@dougsmit

The coin to the left of the Alexander is a silver coin of the KhwarezmIan king Sawashfan, fl. 750s. He was the second to last Zoroastrian king of the Afrighid Dynasty and was a tributary king to the Abbasids on paper, although he probably butted heads to them - outside of coinage, he is known to have appealed to Tang china for a loan.

These are some of the most fascinating medieval coins to me, as they are likely the most numismatically isolated, save for Chinese coins. They started in the 2nd century BC as imitations of tetradrachms of Euthydemos, and were gradually reduced until these coins could circulate at par with Sassanian drachms, and then Islamic dirhems.


I don't have individual images of the one to the upper left of Sawashfan, but it is a potin unit of the Celtic Leuci tribe in Gaul.

 

kool coins! welcome!

 

Welcome to CoinTalk. Don't recognize many of the coins, but do love the Alexander.

 

Nice collection. I especially enjoy the redbrown patina on the big Ptolemy. I think some folks here joke about those as being the size of hockey pucks. That's a beauty. i had one in my original teenager collection that I let go. Teenage group shot collection images here:

 

The Monkey Antiquarian

 

Welcome Finn235, some awesome coins you have there. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Welcome to CT Steve, there are some crossover members on here that you will be familiar with.
I think it is safe to say that you will be busy with requests after showing that group shot as your 1st post.