Hi! I want to buy super cheap roman/greek coins, with the lowest price you can get, because i want to make a small collection, but dont care about the rarity Mabye send me some links?
You'll find that information and more in this recent thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-coins-beginners’-faq-thread.324858/
You could try Dr. Ronald Kurlan out of New Jersey. He has lots of lower grade ancients and a lot of other stuff you will not see anywhere else including Civil War items, coins, currency, pottery, uniform items and much more. He usually can be found advertising in Numismatic News. Frank Robinson at www.fsrcoins.com is another. He often has inexpensive lots in his auctions plus he sells many items outright at fixed prices.
Suggesting a collecting interest to you might be like me suggesting for you a date. What might appeal to me might not appeal to you. If the only stipulation is that the recommendation be “cheap,” such a recommendation typically doesn’t turn out well with either coins or dates. Regarding coins, the best advice I’ve heard about weighing cost versus quality came from Doug Smith. I’ve paraphrased the line many times, but essentially Doug said, “Imagine that 10 years from now you are still collecting. Will you be be happy to have low-quality coins in your collection? What if your tastes change in 10 years and you no longer collect? Will you be able to sell the coins you have and get some/all of your money back?” Such advice recommends striving, as much as possible, to collect the best coins you can afford. All that sounds like I am a deep-pockets collector. I am not. I have purchased three coins this month and spent $30, $49, and $31, respectively. All on eBay. But I’ve been collecting for 14 years and 1) know what I like; and 2) I generally make safe purchases. I like collecting Late Roman Bronzes (4th c. coins), and especially Constantine. I think it’s a fascinating time in history, and interesting coins can still be had in decent condition for $15-50. I also think Severan-era denarii are good purchases if you can afford coins more in the $40-70 range. I’d like to collect more here too. But until you know what you want, you might just want to research a bit and look around and see what strikes your fancy. There’s no hurry. Until you’re more knowledgeable, I would avoid spending too much money on eBay. Often group lots and individual coins can be had just as cheaply and with more confidence on VCoins and the sources referenced in the Beginner’s FAQ thread. Indeed, though my last 3 coins have come from eBay, I’ve made 13 purchases this year from VCoins, 1 from MA Shops, probably 2 or 3 from augustuscoins.com, and a couple of individual grabs from Bargain Bin ancients, individuals here at CoinTalk, and an auction here or there.
Here's a thread that names some affordable "short sets" you could work on. But most around here just say "collect what you like." https://www.cointalk.com/threads/no...fordable-short-set.292314/page-2#post-2671082
I agree with Gavin (and Doug) 1000%. I enjoy collecting HISTORICALLY. However, personally, I would be skewed NOT to later Empire, but to the Roman Republic, Italia, Carthage, and Makedon...all in BCE time period. And since Western coins were not invented until approx 650 BCE (approx time for India as well as China), I personally collect Royal Scarabs from Egypt also. You can start with a few dollars / euros per coin. However, when you truly begin “collecting” within your interest, I found that your spends can truly escalate to match your enjoyment! It really illustrates how you cannot make a generalization about WHAT to collect, or the EXPECTED prices, especially when Ancient Coins cover 2,000 years of Human history.
This thread is very relevant https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-your-budget-buys-index-thread.303991/
Never believe anything that Smith guy says. He is a total amateur and still buys absolute garbage by most standards. The point being made in that statement is that poor coins are hard to sell so you might be stuck with them if you abandon the hobby. I have not yet abandoned the hobby and have a number of coins that I no longer want for one reason or another. They served me well in terms of education and I know a lot more about ancient coins than most people who only buy mint state coins encased in plastic with "all you need to know" labels. In the last year I have given away quite a few of these coins (not all on CT!!!) to people I hope will find them fun, educational and not run straight to eBay to cash them in. The point is that Gavin quoted referred only to the cash, investment part of coin collecting. Buying 100 $10 coins (or 10 $100 coins) will expose you to many times the education that buying one $1000 perfect gem. What you have to decide is why you are buying coins. If what you want is profit, low end coins are not a good financial investment. If what you want is an understanding of a wide variety of coins, the single perfect coin will do you relatively no good until you sell it. Then you are finished. The education of 100 $10 coins (carefully selected, not a bulk uncleaned lot) will help you become ready to make better choices when you are ready to buy those $1000 coins. When you are starting out, you really do not know how you will feel in a decade or five. The best you can do is ask yourself honestly if the coins you are buying are tuition toward your numismatic education or nothing more than a financial investment you believe would be more lucrative than stocks and bonds. This week I bought coins ranging from $3 to $700. They are both money gone from me forever because I have no intention of ever selling either one of them. Will the expensive one serve my life goals, my happiness or my brainpower better than the cheap one? Maybe! Over 200 times as well? Maybe not? Ask yourself what fits your situation and act accordingly.
http://bargainbinancients.com/ https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/david_connors-41/ancient-coins/Default.aspx? http://augustuscoins.com/Greek.html
As I recall the question is asked by someone who bought a coin priced in euros. Knowing roughly where you are located would help produce suggestions that would not cost more in postage than the coins are worth. Latvia? I have no idea.
I was a graduate student with three kids when I first discovered ancient coins, so I had virtually no disposable income. I bought lots of 10-20 uncleaned ancient coins off eBay for around $1 or $2 per coin. I'd clean them up, ID them to the best of my limited abilities, keep whatever I thought was interesting, stash the unidentifiable junk--there was a lot of junk--in a container on my desk (they're still there 20 years later) and then sell the remainders on eBay. Usually I'd recoup my original investment, so the one or two keepers were more or less free. Hard to get much cheaper than that. Sometimes I'd even earn a little money, which meant that I could afford a slightly larger or higher quality lot next time. So in answer to your original question, uncleaned ancient coins are the cheapest coins you can get. They aren't pretty, but most of them will be at least 1,600 years old. And they're a good way to get introduced to the hobby, because you don't have to worry about fakes, and as you try to identify what you've received, you'll learn a lot about ancient coins and 3rd-5th century Roman history.
I'm not sure if he has a web site or not but his address is Ronald Kurlan, 23 Hemlock Road, Livingston, N.J. 07039. He does send out a 16 page printed price list and I'm sure he would be happy to send one to you. Pretty sure he is a practicing Dentist working out of Orange, N.J.
It's hard to go wrong with a Constantinian dynasty set. Barring the rare Hanniballianus, the very rare Nepotian, and excluding the extended family, you can get them all in excellent high grade for $20-50 each: -Constantius I Chlorus + Wife Theodora - Constantine I the Great + Wife Fausta + Mother Helena + Son Crispus The Constantine boys: - Constantine II - Constantius II - Constans + Their cousin Delmatius Their cousins who weren't killed off: - Constantius Gallus - Julian the Apostate If you need more of a challenge: - Hanniballianus, nephew of Constantine, appointed King of Pontus. His coins are pricy (~$100) but available. - Theodora and Fausta were sisters; their father was Maximian, and their brother was Maxentius, both of whom served as emperor. - Maxentius had a son named Romulus who died young. A scarce series of posthumous coins exist for him. - Licinius I was married to Constantine's sister; they had a son Licinius II - Nepotian was a nephew of Constantine; he took Rome by force with an army of gladiators and held it as a usurper for less than a month. He issued coins which are extremely rare. - Procopius was a maternal cousin to Julian II. He launched a short-lived revolt against Valentinian, about 2 years after Julian died. You can also collect reverse types and/or mintmarks. Except for the rarest coins, almost nothing from this time period will set you back more than $100, with common mint state coins averaging about $30-40.
Yeah i want to, but i will not buy any pricy coins, because im still a kid, and my mom would be angry if i spend a lot of money on old coins, but i still want to collect them realy bad
Just curious. What do you consider "super cheap"? Some people would consider $20 super cheap, other people, maybe 20 cents. If you can afford to spend $3-5 for a coin there are many, many options.
