I have always had a deep love for ancient history. As such, I really want to start collecting ancient coins. I restarted collecting coins this year right before the COVID lock down. I know common practice for storing and preserving US coins and more modern coins. My understanding is that collecting ancient coins is different in several aspects. What are the common practices for keeping your ancient coins in the best condition? Are 2x2s the best? What if I want to hold my ancient coins? Please bear with my beginner questions. Thanks!
I use PVC-free 2x2 flips. That way, I can take them out and hold them anytime I want to. Others keep them in archival envelopes. By all means, hold your coins.
I’ll shortly be ordering an Abafil case from coin.com From everything I’ve read Abafil is one of the premier coin case makers, so to get a nice case or tray for less than the price of a single high grade Denarius is a pretty good bargain! And definitely hold your coins! Just wash your hands first
I'm in the Abafil team too. Holding your coins in hand (washed hands) is definitely the best thing you can do with them. Q
I was always too cheap to pay the price for real Abfil trays but always preferred open trays until my collection grew so large I could no longer carry them all or fit them in the bank boxes. At this point I have to weigh the merits of disposing of half the collection and returning to trays or leaving them in paper.
Just to give an idea of what it looks like in Abafil trays, and how easy it is to play with them, here are three pics I resurected (some of the coins aren't in my trays anymore now) Q
This is always an interesting topic for novice collectors of ancients and worth the time to research and read the multiple threads on this site. Here's a good place to start: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-do-you-store-your-ancients.275050/
This is so very true and brings up a question for some of us who have been here several years. When a topic comes up for the twentieth time, should we address it with the link to a previous outing or should we pretend we have never heard such an original idea? Should we show our coins that best fit the topic of go instead for a coin that has not been shown here before a half dozen times? Should we try to make it easy on those who will not take the effort to educate themselves or do we risk being labeled unfriendly or elitist by suggesting that that question has been answered many times before and give a hint where the answer might be found? Coin Talk Ancients has gained quite a few new 'faces' in recent months and with them we have seen the same questions that bother old timers most. These are the 'I paid nothing but think I have found the rarity that will make me a millionaire' or 'I bought this from a flea market for a hundred dollars, was it worth it?' class questions. We welcome newcomers that show even the slightest hint of sticking around long enough that they can help the next wave of new faces. Are we wrong to prefer them to the modern coin experts intent on telling us how we are not collecting the way we should? Coin Talk has a very good search facility. I believe the use of it will benefit most of us were we to take the trouble to try it.
Nihil sub sole novum. Including your complaint! If only novel subjects and questions were deemed appropriate here, then there wouldn't be very many posts at all. Old threads should be seen as a resource, not as a barrier. IMHO and YMMV, to coin a couple of phrases.
