How our collections evolved - shifting interests leading us to our present collections

Yes, CT has been a great forum and a catalyst for my reentry into ancient coins.

 

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My ancient collecting history is very short but has been an incredible ride. In November I'll celebrate my first year anniversary of collecting.

Two things pushed me that time oh so long ago. First, I'd been intrigued by ancient coin collecting for some time. Ten years earlier I'd bought some fakes in Jordan, and was surprised to learn that the real ones didn't cost much more. I'd been waiting for an opportunity, but lacked the budget.

At the same time, my wife wasn't pleased with the space some of my collections were taking. I had a pile of commemoratives and mint sets that I'd erroneously thought would increase in value. I also had boxes of Transformers, GI Joe, and Star Wars toys from when I was a kid. A few were still in their original boxes. Finally, I had my antique firecracker collection, which I'd carefully gathered during my teens and twenties. My budget was very limited back then, but I spent time talking to the bigger collectors and knew the value of everything. When something was underpriced, I grabbed it.

So, the natural solution that occurred to me was to sell all these and finally finance my ancient coins.

My first thought was to collect one coin from each Greek city and one from each emperor. I figured a few cities would only be in museums, but the rest should be doable. I quickly realized that wouldn't work.

I made a list of the coins that looked the coolest. High on that list was an Athenian tet, and this really got me going. Up until then, the few coins I'd purchased were a bit drab, but this one was stunning. Even more amazing to me was the thought that Socrates was alive when it was minted, and that there was a fair chance that someone who held this coin knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone, who had spoken to Socrates.



My next targets were Roman emperors. I'd realized I couldn't "collect them all" but I figured I'd keep adding them until I ran out of budget.



Note that one tenet of my collecting, which I continue to keep, is I'm interested in the history. I'm not out there to find the shiniest coins for everyone to admire. I just want my own little piece of history. To me, the stories are worth far more.

Soon, I read some about Alexander the Great. The history fascinated me, and I had to have a lifetime coin. I lost a number at auction before I finally got one.



I read about Demetrios I Poliorketes too. He seemed like an incredible guy, so I had to add him too.



That got me started on the Diadochi, and I've been hooked ever since. I read Ghost on the Throne and have been poring through all forms of papers to learn as much as I can about this period.

My collecting has moved entirely to what I term the "Era of the Diadochi." This is literally a real life Game of Thrones (but with a higher body count), and I can't get enough. Here are a few more I've picked up. (Ptolemy I Soter, Antiochos I Soter, Asandros)




Currently, I have a document I update containing every target coin I know of. So far I have 29 different coins that make up the "Era of the Diadochi", with 5 more (including Seleukos) on the way. My total collection that I've accumulated since November is about 100 coins.

Alas, my budget is at an end, so now I'll need to beg for each coin from my better half. I therefore expect to accumulate far fewer coins over the next year. I still have a lot of targets remaining, so I expect to remain in this space for some time.

Will I always collect coins from this era? There are others that interest me such as:
- Philip I coins celebrating Rome's 1000 year anniversary
- Italian Greek colonies, especially from the Puglia and Basilicata region, which I just returned from
- Filling out the Seleukid, Antigonid, and Ptolemaic lines
- Maybe doing the blase thing and collecting the 12 caesars (I have 6)

Those should keep me collecting for many more years.

Easily the best thing I've done since starting is join this forum. I've learned a ton in all areas of collecting, and the answers to my questions have been immensely helpful.

 

Very beautiful archaic tetradrachm, @robinjojo. Nice!

Hard to find one with good designs on both sides at a decent price these days. Would this coin make it to one of your 2021 top 10?

My ancients collecting interest has evolved and shifted since I joined Cointalk. I used to think an Owl tetradrachm, a Corinth stater, plus an Alexander lifetime (legs not crossed) tetradrachm would be enough to satisfy my ancients collecting bug. Guess I am wrong. I got hooked up to ancients again, after reading all the cool articles in CT during the past 2 years, especially the weekly Faustina articles by @Roman Collector.

 

Thank you for sharing your journey, for collecting is indeed a journey, one that is our lifetime companion as we learn and explore the history and the wonders of our planet. The knowledge that we acquire through this forum, through books and other media opens doors and enriches the mind. It becomes a fount of understanding the way the world and human history has been, and how the past informs the present and is indeed an indicator of the future.

You have some wonderful coins, just exquisite. With ancient coins art is often wedded to the symbolic purposes of a coin. The beauty of Arethusa and the quadriga of Syracuse's tetradrachms serve to proudly announce to the world at that time her power and achievement. The same can be said of Athens, through not of the same artistic level as the Syracusan coinage, still pronounces her power and dominance of the 5th century ancient world in the Mediterranean and East. There are many other examples, both Roman, Greek, Byzantine and Islamic, to name a few.

I admire your systematic approach to collecting. I am much less organized. I guess that comes down to personality. I get easily pulled in different directions, as you can see in my original post. If I read something of interest, either here on CT or a novel I am reading, I get an urge to acquire an example of the coin being described or the king, general, emperor or empress in the novel.

Since you are interested in the tumultuous period following the death of Alexander III, I recommend a novel by Mary Renault, the third novel in her trilogy on Alexander The Great, Funeral Games.

Many people collect coins as investments, objects that, hopefully, will provide a healthy return upon sale. The true collector, I think, in whatever field or period of numismatics, develops a profound link between coins, the ultimate time travelers created by humans, and the stories they have to tell.

 

I Started with coins at the start of 2018 when my nan gave me a tin of old coins. I started collecting 1700-1945 world coins but was bored of moderns fairly quickly. I then moved onto ancients and started out collecting anything that I liked the look of but then I decided I needed to focus my collection on 1 specific area so now I only collect coinage minted for England from Celtic britain to Roman Britain all the way to up the end of the Tudors.

 

My parents divorced when I was eight (1953). Due to my mother's work schedule (nurse) I spent a lot of time in our apartment alone. To keep me occupied, she 'advanced' me $50 to buy coins at face from a local vending machine company (loose in canvas bags) which I would sort and roll to cash in at the bank to retrieve the cash. I sold or traded 'better' coins that I did not have at a local coin store. One day, I saw a dish of ancients on the counter and bought a few ancients of no merit. I considered it foolish to pay more than face value for a US coin but was willing to trade extra 1913's for a 1911 I lacked. I considered paying half a dollar for a decent bronze or low end denarius quite OK since they were not spendable. Soon, I stopped looking at US and funded ancient purchases from working in the local aquarium store. When in high school, I saw a coin that really spoke to me on a list from Joel Malter in California but it was $13.50 or twice what I had ever spent on a coin before. I bought it and have shown it here more times than you can count.


I soon became especially interested in coins of Septimius Severus who was less popular and much cheaper than most rulers. I even wrote an article on the coin above for the 'Voice of the Turtle' magazine (Feb. 1966). They would publish anything.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124356743285?
chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=124356743285&targetid=1263433205694&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9008602&poi=&campaignid=10459841979&mkgroupid=117435520970&rlsatarget=pla-1263433205694&abcId=2146002&merchantid=113676975&gclid=CjwKCAjw4KyJBhAbEiwAaAQbE4dY15dXabvQ1G7v4su9jbm3ivJhxHK7Sczd7aaQSXLZj5JM32FBFBoCvXgQAvD_BwE

In those days, I was also buying 'general' ancients and living easy with my wife and I both working. Then came 1974 and the birth of our daughter. My wife stopped working and I stopped buying coins. Choosing financial security over coins, I sold about 150 coins to Joel Malter for $500. To this day I have never seen even one of those coins. Who bought them? I want some of them back; one even?


I kept three that I considered special to me (and Mr. Malter would not pay extra for) and bought no more coins for 12 years when I, once again, saw some offered in a shop. I continued collecting generally 50% and Septimius 50% as before the break. I wrote a letter to the British Museum asking a question on Septimius which they could not answer but they introduced me to Roger Bickford-Smith who was then the expert of note on such things. He offered me $250 for the coin in question. I refused and we became quite close. During that period, I pretty much stopped buying anything but Septimius. I never got over Roger's sudden death and still value his letters. I did get some of his coins from the CNG sale 47. The BM kept most of what they saw to be the better ones but I got a few that will stay here for the duration.

About that time, the late Victor Failmezger, a fellow member of the local coin club (Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington) tried with some success to get me interested in Late Roman bronzes. He was writing a book on the subject for which I did photos of his collection and my coins when my specimen was better than his.


About that time, for reasons I fail to understand, I conceived the desire to learn to write HTML code for web pages and decided to use free web space on Geocities for a website on coins. Later the site moved to Ancients.info and then to Forvm where I intend to let it die. In 1997, the web needed free information exchange on ancient coins. Today, there is a glut.

The first two pages were one on 'My Favorite Coin' and one supporting Victor's belief that some Falling Horseman coins showed the use of stirrups (contrary to the belief that these were unknown to the Romans).
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/notsev.html
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac6.html
From 1997 to 2003, I posted a new page almost every week to the point that my wife was getting irritated at the time I was spending on coins. During this period I bought many coins I did not really want but that I 'needed' to illustrate my webpage obsession.

Those coins include most of what I have been selling through John Anthony and Severus Alexander's sales. A few were Severan duplicates. The 12 coins Evan referred to were what did not sell in AMCC 1. I decided it was better to give them to a promising YN than to sell then at even less than the start prices.

I hope the people to whom I have given coins understand that they are to be nice to some YN someday. Nothing would make me happier than to find someone I encouraged in any way to take up this hobby became curator of the British Museum, wrote a standard reference book on coins or just developed a lifelong interest not unlike the one I have enjoyed.

2003 saw a 'fear of poverty' repeat of 1974 when I retired (for good!) and stopped buying coins and updating the web pages until we got acclimated to living on half pay. My collecting in this period moved away from so many Septimius coins and was more general with emphasis on what I considered to be technically interesting coins which most people find ugly.



Occasionally, I took a short side trip into the fad of the moment (Probus, Republican, Indian etc.) but usually returned to the technical (errors, interesting fabric) or whatever attracted my attention. Dealers at shows who asked what I was collecting were told, "Coins I like at prices I can afford." They were hoping to hear, "Coins you got stuck with for twice what they are worth."

On respected expert told me I was the second cheapest person he knew. I was hurt. #2 has to try harder. I still wonder who was #1; he could have been fun to know.

In 2009 I joined Coin Talk but found it a crashing bore with a World section described as for the discussion of the 'new Euro coins' and other non-US. I was active on another venue when two of my friends were kicked off (as I recall, one posted a Priapus coin and the other complained when the first got the boot). I suggested we move to Coin Talk where some old members considered themselves invaded by the Mongol Hoard and Atilla the Hun all in one. I stopped updating the website altogether and spent too much time on Coin Talk.

Then came Covid and cancellation of coin shows accompanied by frenzied spending online. I bought one coin this year and am not in love with it.

I may be done. There is a coin show scheduled for September 24-25 nearby but I expect it to be cancelled due to the rising Covid numbers. I may not go anyway since latest reports suggest I won't be booster eligible then.

It was fun while it lasted.

 

Hmmm... I have been collecting since I was 9. Started in US Coins (as I am American), but focused on the "different" coins, as I was bored with collecting everyday coinage by year and mint. My first coin was a US Civil War Token (Cent), and I delved into 2 cent, 3 cent, 20 cent, Trade Dollars, Hard Times, Feuchtwangers, etc. Always enjoyed the off-beat approach.

Got bored and transitioned into Ancients, as I always enjoyed Ancient History since my Jr High English Teacher sparked my passion (she was an old bat, strict, but loved Ancient Rome). My Ancients collection began early in my life (20's), but with low-cost, insignificant coins, just to be my placemarkers in History.

I find my collection is a "progression". I focus collecting on areas of History I enjoy. As I collect Historical Periods, I find that I progress to the next juncture of History and flesh out my interests, expanding my collection.

I enjoy collecting Coins of:
- Roman Republic
- Roman Republic pre-denarii
- Central Italia
- Carthage
- Diodachi / Alexandrine
- Etruria
- Ancient China
- Coins from Ancient Critical Junctures in Human History
- Have around 150 of the different Roman Rulers, but that is for chatting / creating interest with my Grandkids. I really do not "collect" them.
- I collect Cool Coins that "grab" me
- Since Egypt has a long history without coins, I collect historical placemarkers by focusing on Royal Egyptian Scarabae



US Civil War Token AE Cent CE 1863 Eagle - Carpeles Dry Goods Groceries Waterloo Wis - Alegandron Coin number 1



Carthage-LIBYAN UPRISING - Mercenaries issue
Mercenary War 241-238 BCE
7.36g AR DiShekel
Melqart / Herakles Head in Lion's Head-
Lion walking; Punic M above; LIBYA below
Overstruck
R SNG Cop 240f
Coins were struck in the name of Libya and "M", which has been taken as either "machanat" - the Camp (of the mercenaries), or perhaps Matho, their leader



Etruria Populonia AR 5 Asses 3rd C BCE 2.0g Young Hd L V behind HN 173 Vecchi Rasna III 52 Vecchi Etruscan 91.6 ex NAC 29 No 9 RARE



Roman Republic Anon 265-242 BCE AR Heavy Denarius - Didrachm Roma-Victory Crawford 22-1 Sear 25



India Gandahara
AR Bent Bar
early long type
11.3g
650-600 BCE
(Double dots on both ends - hard-to-find)



Kingdom of Makedon
Philip II 382-336 BCE (Reign 359-336 BCE)
AR Tetradrachm.
Mint: Pella, lifetime issue, struck circa 353-349 BC.
25 mm. 14.4 g
Obv: Laureate head of Zeus right Rev: ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ,
Rev: Philip on horseback left, wearing kausia and raising right hand; spearhead below, star below horse's raised foreleg.
Le Rider 102 (D58/R82); SNG ANS 357Hey


Last coin minted by the Nemesis of Rome, CARTHAGE:

Carthage Third Punic War Serrate Double Shekel 149-146 BCE 12.8g 26mm Wreathd Tanit-Horse pellet raised leg SNG COP 404



China
Qin Shi Huang
34mm 8.5g
ban liang
221-206 BCE
半两 Primitive Line script
rare
ex Dr Alex Fishman


Marsic Confederation
AR Denarius
Bovianum(?) mint, 89 BCE.
3.93g, 20mm, 3h
Obv: Laureate head of Italia left, VITELIA = ITALIA in Oscan script
Rev: Soldier standing facing, head right, foot on uncertain object, holding inverted spear and sword, recumbent bull to right facing; retrograde B in exergue.
Ref: Campana 122 (same dies); HN Italy 407
Ex: Eucharius Collection.
Ex: Roma Auction 11, Lot 607



Apulia Luceria AE Quincunx 26mm 14.75g- Spoked Wheel 250-217 BCE Athena-Wheel Grose 443 HN Italy 678 SNG ANS 699

 

Thank you!

That archaic owl and the one I am using as my avatar are certainly candidates for the list, along with some other coins that I have not posted yet.

Thank you, Doug.

Between you bags of coins from vending machines and dimes and quarters from juke boxes, our youths do share a common link to 1960s technology. It is also interesting how you have become more a generalist in you collecting. I never really specialized, in a meaningful way, and have been jumping from one area to another, and back.

 

Thank you, Alegandron, for the wonderful examples and the story of your collecting.

What stimulates your interests in historical periods? Do you read fiction, histories or biographies? Do some of the posts on CT direct your attention to new subjects?

It is interesting how a fairly common coins, such as the civil war cent can open the door to a lifelong endeavor. I had an uncle who gave me a shoe box of pennies when I was very young. As I recall they were all common Lincoln head pennies, but I remember spending hours going through them.

 

@robinjojo I read histories and biographies. I really do not get excited about historical fiction. Too many liberties are taken to write a story that mislead real history.

What is bizarre about my Civil War token is that I FOUND it in my Grandmother’s CHANGE JAR! I asked her if I could keep it, then she and I went to Lloyd Fudge’s coin shop in Mountain Home, AR to learn about it. Lloyd spent a lot of time teaching me about it. I visited his shop many times after.

 

Wow...I loved and very much related to your "reflective" phase intro...very similar life issues for me, retirement changes, dealing with the mind/fog issues plus with re-assessing, re-evaluating things, some regrets, etc, and while not so much a fan of ancients/ancient history, am very much so with U.S./American history, plus as it relates to Britain/British history. For me, I've had to almost totally re-evaluate my collection from what I've learned and read about here on CT, particularly coins that I've re-assessed for condition/grade and how leaning/knowing more from folks here on CT has helped to change my priorities. Hard to explain, but appreciate your sharing all this...nice photos, too. I wish certain folks would understand better, but then, how can they if not/never dealing with it...? Thanks.

 

Much like @robinjojo, I attribute my interest in coins to a love of history Growing up, I would read voraciously. I remember that (on the rare occasion) when my parents wanted to discipline me, they would order me to my room. That was where the World Book Encyclopedia resided, so I would just pull out a random volume and start reading. I couldn’t have been happier.
I collected stamps in high school, but became aware of ancient coins while visiting a jewelry store in St Thomas on my honeymoon. That piqued my interest so I started reading (thank you, David Sear).
I started out as a generalist, with both Greek and Roman coins. At one point, I thought that maybe I would specialize in Athenian coins, but that really didn’t excite me. So I kept reading. I couldn’t resist the rich history of the Imperatorial Period.
So I traded all my various coins for a couple of Roman mosaics and started over. Early on, I decided that I would avoid Provincials as there were plenty of targets otherwise. This was in the early ‘80’s and I’ve slowly built a collection of 87 Imperatorial coins. I get tremendous pleasure from having coins directly linked to such important historical figures as Julius Caesar, Octavian, Brutus, Antony and Cleopatra among others.
And after collecting Imperatorials for nearly 40 years, I’m pretty sure that there will be no changes in my tastes going forward!