Poll : What Areas Of Ancient & Medieval Coins Do You Collect?

I am interested to see, how many CoinTalkers, who post on the Ancients forum, collect various areas of ancient and medieval coins.
For the purpose of this poll, by "collect", I mean, that you have actively searched for, and purchased, coins in a given collecting area.
Unfortunately, a CoinTalk poll seems to be limited to 10 choices. The 10 choices in this poll, are somewhat skewed, by my own interests. But, I tried to represent the major collecting areas, to a certain extent.
There may be some glaring omissions, because of my limited knowledge, or because I simply forgot something. For those glaring omissions, please select the "Other" option, and please let me know, what those omissions are.
I also imagine, that some of these areas may overlap. In those cases, please do the best you can. For example, for the Vandals who invaded and settled in northern Africa, I would classify that as Pre-Islamic Africa Or Middle East, but some persons may classify that as Ancient Barbarians In Europe.
Myself, I collect the following areas : Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, Byzantine, Pre-Islamic Africa Or Middle East, Ancient Or Medieval Chinese, Medieval Europe (Crusader coins and English silver pennies), and Other (medieval Vietnam).

 

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P.S. : If you would like to post and specify which sub-areas that you collect, then I would be interested to see it. For example, in the area of Medieval Europe, I collect Crusader coins and English silver pennies. In the area of Other, I collect medieval Vietnamese coins.

 

Ancient roman and medieval Europe here (specifically the Dombes principality, but everybody here know that already )

Q

 

I collect everything in gold/ electrum/ platinum/ paladium/ 670BC-present. I also collect AR Roman RR/ Imp. +Parthian.
I have no specialty/ but I really love Transylvanian AV coinage.
John

 

All of them except Chinese. Just can't get into them.

 

Me and you! I have not one in my coll. Then, again.....probably be fakes

 

I don't own a single one either & I am pretty sure I've rooted out the "fakes".

 

Yes, fakes seem to be a problem, with some ancient and medieval Chinese coins. Maybe not for the more common coins. But, for the rarer coins, such as the round hole coins, and the large Ban Liang coins, and the spade money, and the knife money, fakes seem to be a problem, especially on Ebay.

 

Medieval Europe and ancient Rome...but i am Interested in all currency before a certain time period. Very few contemporary modern coins that I like.

 

..i reckon i cover the whole spectrum.....

 

First two options.
I was always attracted to Roman Imperial coins but before starting to study and collect them I was under the impression the only affordable ones are badly preserved 4th century coins.
I started with a lot of 34 coins - a mixed lot - and I was very surprised to find 1st and 2nd century coins (even a Trajan denarius, this was a dream for me) + 12 denarii in very nice conditions. I then realized that, even if it's not cheap, the hobby is affordable as long as you have some limits.
Greek coins were totally unknown for me (and again I was under the impression they are obscenely expensive). But in the mixed lot there was a Suessa Aurunca bronze so I started studying Greek coinage also. And became attracted to it mostly when reading on CoinTalk.
Similar with Roman Republican coins. @sand, in my opinion, collecting RR and Imperial are two different stories and even if a collector of RIC knows some RR and vice versa, I guess they should be treated as separate categories.

I am not attracted to other domains in numismatics, not even Byzantine, not my cup of tea.

 

I am in the same boat. Modern coinage, with few exceptions are boring/ drab/ silly in their themes ie "Superman" However the UK still produces coins in the "Classic" style, staying with older designs like "Pistruccis" AV Sovereign 1817 style. My fav. "modern" coin is my Biafra AV 25 Pounds / part of 1969 5 piece set.

 

It would be interesting to see, how many CoinTalkers collect only RR, or only RIC. It seems like, some CoinTalkers favor one or the other. But I have no idea, how many CoinTalkers, collect only one and not the other. For example, @Andrew McCabe certainly seems to specialize in RR, and he is a well known expert in RR, but I don't know, if he also collects RIC. I've never seen him post anything, regarding RIC. I've also seen some CoinTalkers, who seem to be very specialized, in a particular sub-area of RR or RIC. But, I don't know, if they collect both RR and RIC.
That might be an interesting future poll. A poll, in which there are 10 sub-areas of RR and RIC, from which to choose. For example, what areas do you collect, RR cast coins, pre-denarius RR, bronze RR, silver RR, Imperatorial, 1st century AD RIC, 2nd century AD RIC, 3rd century AD RIC, 4th century AD RIC, and 5th century AD RIC. Or something like that.
It would also be interesting to know, for each CoinTalker, how many RR coins they have, versus how many RIC coins they have. Or even just the ratio of RR coins versus RIC coins, that the person owns. Myself, I have 6 RR coins, and 28 RIC coins. In other words, my RR/RIC ratio is 0.21. But, I'm very interested in both RR and RIC. But, I seem to have amassed way more RIC coins, for some reason.

 

This is absolutely correct, it will be difficult to find an ancients collector having only RR or only RIC. Roman Imperial are the most popular because they are numerous, as a general rule, cheaper (it's easier to start a collection with 50 RIC than with 50 RR) and more appealing for a beginner because of general knowledge - a beginner might have heard of Antoninus Pius, Nero, Claudius but most likely they will not be aware of Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus.

As for your last part - spending half a day creating an Excel file with my collection was a good idea. I have 7 RR coins (+ 1 RR Provincial) and 150 RIC. Also 41 Provincial (a category I find very close to RIC but somewhat distinct).

 

I focus all my Ancient coins from the Antarctic Civilizations.

 

Yes, it seems to be easier to collect RIC, versus RR.
I'm not sure, whether to count Imperatorial coins as RR or RIC or neither. For my RR/RIC ratio, it doesn't matter, because I have no Imperatorials. But for your RR/RIC ratio, it matters a great deal. If Imperatorials are counted as RR, then your RR/RIC ratio is 49/150 = 0.33. If Imperatorials are not counted as RR or RIC, then your RR/RIC ratio is 8/150 = 0.05. If Imperatorials are counted as RIC, then your RR/RIC ratio is 8/191 = 0.04.
By the way, just for fun, here are my numbers, for the 10 proposed Roman sub-areas, that I mentioned in my previous post. Note that 2 of my RR coins, fit into multiple sub-areas. 2 of my bronze RR coins, are also pre-denarius RR coins, and 1 of those 2 bronze RR coins is also an RR cast coin.
RR cast coins : 1
Pre-denarius RR : 2
Bronze RR : 4
Silver RR : 2
Imperatorial : 0
1st century AD RIC : 4
2nd century AD RIC : 5
3rd century AD RIC : 7
4th century AD RIC : 4
5th century AD RIC : 8

 

Roman Imperial, Roman Provincial, and Byzantine exclusively.

 

I primarily collect Roman provincial and Roman imperial coins (Antonine dynasty as a subspecialty), but I also seek out and buy Roman republican, Judean, Greek and Byzantine coins.

 

I really go with anything that catches my eye.....The areas I mostly collect in seem to swing back and forth throughout the year....It's probably easier for me to state the areas I haven't yet ventured into.....Greek Silver, Byzantine, Chinese (although I do own 1), European Medieval (outside of Spain) and anything in gold.

 

I agree that RR is, in many ways, a different specialty from Roman Imperial. I consider Roman Provincial to be, perhaps, more closely related to Roman Imperial, despite the vastly different styles. (But then again, based on style alone, one could argue that Late Roman Imperial is a different field from the Imperial coinage of the first and second centuries AD.)

I can't give any exact numbers for my collection, because I still haven't gotten access to my old hard drive, with the latest version of my personal coin catalog listing all of my ca. 320 ancient coins. (I'm awaiting what I hope is the right kind of usb cable, since the hard drive enclosure box didn't have it!)

But I think I can say that I actively collect all three main types of Roman coinage: Roman Republican, Roman Imperial, and Roman Provincial (particularly Roman Alexandrian). Within Roman Imperial, I no longer actively seek out bronze coins issued from Diocletian onwards -- I think I have enough, and they all begin to look sort of alike to me! -- but still have interest in collecting silver (the siliquae and the argentei), and, when I can afford them, gold in the form of solidi.

I think people know that RR's hold a special fascination for me from, say, the 130s BCE and later (after the end of the era of coins that were anonymous and/or showed nothing but the Dioscuri galloping in tandem). It seems possible to research and write a lengthy essay about almost every single coin and its historical and symbolic aspects, something that obviously isn't possible for most Imperial coins. If I have many fewer RRs than Roman Imperials -- about 67 compared to about 200, as a guess -- it's because they're generally scarcer in nice condition, and (especially in the last couple of years) more expensive than the average Imperial in equivalent condition. In addition, I would guess that I have about 30-40 Roman Provincials, and have sought them out -- particularly the Roman Alexandrian coinage -- more actively in the last year or so than previously.

I also own about 20 Ancient Greek coins, some of which, I think, should be classified more accurately as "Republican Provincial." I don't seek Greek coins out actively pursuant to any kind of plan; it's more a case of finding some coins so attractive that I just have to have them in the rare case that I can afford them -- like the Aspendos stater I bought from Harlan J. Berk that was probably my #1 coin from all of 2021.

I have never collected Byzantine or Western medieval coins -- as opposed to my two solidi of Arcadius and Honorius, which in terms of iconography and symbolism still qualify as predominantly "Roman" to me. In other words, not so suffused with religious symbolism of a type that I admire artistically, but don't have any great interest in collecting. Back when I was a collector of British coins and historical medals, my collection went only as far back as the Tudors.