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

From the poll, for me it’s Greek, Roman, Byzantine, ancient barbarian, and Islamic.

With Roman, I only collect Imperial (with a strong emphasis on late Roman), and provincial; not Republican as I don’t really find the overall history as interesting (although I do have 1 nice RR denarius and a small aes rude). And with Byzantine, it’s the earlier stuff (late 5th to around 9th century) I seek out and buy. As far as Greek goes I go for anything nice/interesting that is 3rd century BC or older. My exception for this is my Ptolemaics and Seleucids of which I collect from the whole lifespan of their kingdoms. With ancient barbarians I focus on the late- and post-Roman Germanic peoples/kingdoms; no interest in the Celts and their coinage. And regarding Islamic, I mostly gravitate towards the coinage from the earlier caliphates (Umayyad, Abbasid, Spanish Umayyads/Cordoba caliphate, etc.), but am hoping to eventually acquire more from around the time of the early Crusades and Saladin.

Since I am interested in Carolingian coinage as well, I was not sure if for the poll they’d fall under the ancient barbarian or medieval Europe categories so I counted them in the former as they are Franks.

My collecting habits greatly depend on my interest in the history and culture of that particular kingdom, empire, region, group, etc. If the coin is very nice aesthetically but I am not interested in its background/history then I won’t buy it.

 

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I collect ancient Greek (primarily Magna Grecia, specifically the Messapian mints around Tarentum as well as Tarentum and Metapontum), Roman (no provincials, primarily denarii and antoninianii), and medieval European (primarily minted in East Frisia (Ostfriesland) mints like Emden and Jever, but also Groningen in the NL). Like others, I also have a handful of outliers that don't fit into these categories. The East Frisian coinage stretches from the 900s to the 1800s. Outliers include British Saxon and medieval, some Crusader coins, and other Greek city states like Athens, Apollonia Pontika, etc.

 

Pretty much exclusively Roman Provincial of Judaea, Decapolis and Arabia. With nearly 3000 types to cover, and many of them very rare or unique, I don't think I will exhaust it anytime soon .

 

I started out collecting primarily US coins while occasionally dabbling with world coins.

It wasn’t until two years ago that I shifted my focus to ancient coins. From the start, I decided to focus on Republican denarii. Although early Imperial coins tend to have superior style to Republican coins, I find Republican coins more interesting due to their more diverse subject matter on the designs.

Early Imperial coins are of secondary importance in my collecting. When collecting Imperial coinage, I solely focus on silver denarii and antoninianii of the 1st-3rd centuries. I’m less interested in the Late Roman coins of the 4th-5th centuries. I completed a set of denarii of the Five Good emperors. I’m currently working on a 12 Caesars set. I’d have to forgoe denarii of Caligula and Claudius due to their high price tags, substituting with bronze instead.

I merely dabble with Greek coins. Most high quality Greek silver is too rich for my wallet. When I do collect Greek silver, I prefer larger denominations such as hemidrachm, tetrobol, drachm, didrachm, stater, tetradrachm etc. I don’t collect smaller coins such as obols as they’re easy to lose. Basically I’m open to collecting anything 15 mm or larger.

I’m actually more interested in Byzantine history than Roman history. However, my current collection consists of only a single Byzantine bronze, a tiny pentanummium of emperor Justinian. I hope to expand my Byzantine collection. When collecting Byzantine coins, I’d like to start with emperor Anastasius and end with emperor Basil II, basically the 5th-10th centuries. The coins of the later emperors of the Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties don’t strike me as “ancient” and I class them as medieval coins instead. Which is why I don’t collect the coins of the Late Byzantine emperors, meaning no trachys for me. I’d like to own a gold solidus of Justinian and a silver hexagram of Heraclius someday.

I’m open to dabbling with some non-classical Eastern cultures, more specifically the Parthian Empire. I’d only collect the early Parthian coins due to their Hellenistic art style. The later Parthian coins are too crude for my taste. Although I find Sassanid coins pretty, I’m not going to collect them because I don’t like their thin fabric.

 

So I answered ‘Ancient Roman, ancient barbarian, and medieval Europe.’ The ‘ancient barbarian’ may be a stretch as it is an area that I do wish to collect, but don’t have many. So the thought occurred to me, how does my collection actually break down by these categories? So here are my numbers:

Ancient Greek: 15
Ancient Roman: 65 (9 Republican, 35 Imperial, 21 Provincial)
Byzantine: 10
Pre-Islamic Africa or Middle East: 8
Chinese: 10
Central/South Asian: 11
Ancient Barbarians: 5
Medieval Europe: 116
Islamic: 7
Other: 2

I’m a little surprised to see ‘ancient Greek’ is my third largest category. I would have thought it was Byzantines.

 

The preponderance of my collection is late Roman and Byzantine from Constantius II till the end of the empire’s coinage. Closely linked to that are some barbarian imitative coins; Ostrogothic, Visigothic, Lombardic, Merovingian, and the famous “Germanic, unidentified” tribe. Then there are a few Crusader coins, and some Islamic, Mongol, Indian, and Kushan coins. Some early medieval pennies of England and France, a sceat or two, a couple of Roman Republican denarii, some Venetian ducats and scudi, a handful of medieval gros (but fewer than a gross). There’s a single Greek stater, a single aureus barely identifiable, and a bit of modern stuff, mostly European.
I am experiencing some shock at the prices of Byzantine and imitative solidi, such that nearly all my auction bids are not only exceeded, but the coins are sometimes selling for 3x or 4x what I would expect.

This is my first successful bid in a while. Waiting on this coin from Leu (their pic.)

 

First, I collect Roman Imperial and Roman Republican coins mainly for iconographic and/or historical interest. Coins of the Severan dynasty and the "barracks emperors" (including the Gallic empire) are probably my favorite and also largest Roman subcollections.

Secondly, I collect ancient Greek coins mainly by aesthetic appeal. In this field, I have no specific focus but am mainly a "magpie collector".

Third, I collect European medieval coins. Here, I focus on the German-speaking lands in the High and Late Middle Ages. I have several very specialized medieval collecting interests (coins showing saints and their relics, bracteates, coins of the military orders). Yet, I occasionally steer away from these fields and add other European or even "Eastern" coins to my collection.

 

I am most certainly with Spaniard on this one. Even though I have always had a specialty (or several), anything that catches my eye was in danger of being added to the mess. I rarely have much to talk about with strict specialists unless their specialty happens to intersect one of mine.

I would have liked this thread better if each participant had added an image or two that shows an example of what they like. I'm not asking for top ten lists as much as a sampler. Anyone who knows me has seen mine:
As of about 15 years ago:
One of the coins in this image was traded away (sadly).


As of about 8 years ago:
There is some overlap but all these are still here.


I suspect that, were I to do another top list, it would be rather different. That would that be a hard list to keep down to only 100!

 

Chinese if we are talking amount/volume, Roman imperial if we are talking current focus.

 

Mostly provincials, if I can help it. I put "other" as they don't really fit too cleanly into Greek or Roman.

Obligatory coin:

 

I collect what I like, but as it turns out I like too much so I have some focus areas, some side interests and some areas that I excluded altogether.

Antiquity

• Greek: I excluded Greek coins altogther and I'm proud to have kept a promise that I made to myself to never go into collecting Greek coins. Reasons: I'm not so interested in Greek history.
• Celtic: Marginal side interest. Only a few selected pieces.
• Roman: Focusing on the the 3rd to 5th centuries, which is the period that I find historically most interesting. I don't collect the Roman Republic and I'm not too keen on the 1st and 2nd centuries. I don't collect Roman provincials (with exceptions). I focus on coins in silver, billon and bronze, but I'm very particular when it comes to condition. In my collecting philosophy condition trumps rarity.

• Germanic kingdoms: Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Suevian, some Frankish (Merovingian) and some early Anglo-Saxon. I find the historical period when Rome fell and successor kingdoms emerged particulaly interesting. Problem: My collections are practically complete, i.e. there is very little left that I can afford.

Middle Ages

• Some German coins of the high middle ages (side interest).
• Russian coins from 1000 to 1500.
• Some Georgian coins of the 12th/13th century (side interest)
• Coins of the Teutonic Order of Knights (from East Prussia)

Post Medieval

• Coins of East Prussia (only selected pieces)

 

What would be the date range for the Medieval period? Some place Medieval
coins under "Ancient" others under "World".

 

I actually stopped collecting ancient and medieval coins some years ago but I find myself unable to stop talking about them!

 

1. Carthaginian as I remember my voyages with Hanno.
1a. Anything with Dido - coins and medals.
2. Roman Emperor
3. Roman Empress sesterii
4. A dabble of Parthian and Sassanian
5. I have recently begun a set of at least one coin from other ancient cultures such as Nabatean, Indian, Chinese, Celtic, various African states, Judean, etc. I will put them in a frame and show them to the children at our local library.
6. Finally, as stated by others above, anything I can find that is interesting to me.

 

I seem to be nearing that phase as well. At some point we start wondering what to do with any type of collectable unless it represents a 'significant' amount of money by our definition of that word. I believe I can define something as 'expendable' when I no longer want to talk about it. The easy answer is to die and let the kids deal with it.

Grocery stores around here are complaining of a lack of coins for change. I wonder what they would say about my paying my bill entirely in all different State Quarters squirreled away before we knew there would be so many of them and 'collectors' would only want proofs and other NCLT versions. These days my main use for coinage is freeing a shopping cart from the rack at Aldi's. Other than collecting, what part do coins (and 'paper'?) play in your life today?

 

Well, I’ve tackled this enough times before, so why not again? My opinion on this subject (and there can only be opinion, there is no right or wrong answer): periods are the creation of modern historians, and not something people of the past lived by. In general, the years 500-1500 are ‘medieval.’

as to whether medieval coins belong in the ancient or world forums I believe it is open to personal preference. I choose the ancient forums because I believe the process of creating ‘medieval’ coins (through hammering blank flans) is more similar to ancient methods of production than modern world coins that use machines.

so in my mind, medieval coins are then defined as those produced after the Romans in Europe, up until coin production is replaced by milled coins (which means there are varying end dates).

but again, since periodization is a modern concept, opinions will vary

 

As a small boy I traded nickel 10 cents pieces of the Netherlands for old silver ones with the milkman and the baker who always had a bag full of small change. In this way I got a range of dates and with that stopped the interest. Later I collected world coins (the world was much bigger then and much more exotic). As a student, when I had some more money to spend, I focussed on Dutch republican coins ( 1568-1795) and in 1974 I sold the lot to embark on Roman coins. I had no idea then, that there were so many different ones! The plan to own every denomination (except gold) from every prince, emperor, empress or emperor, is still the core of my collection. Then, after buying an early Antoninus Pius and publishing about it, started my main interest: all coins issued under Antoninus Pius from the mint of Rome. This collection now comprises over a thousand different coins. As it became increasingly difficult to find new variants, I also started collection LRB's from the mint of Arles up to the death of Constantine. That seems very limited, but there are some 1200 coins struck between 313 and 340.
After sixty years of collection I now have more coins I want to get rid of than coins in one of the collections.
No, Doug, I don't want my kids to have to deal with it! I hope to live long enough to disperse of my surplus coins myself.

Frans


Attached the number 'one' coin of my Pius collection RIC new: 2769; old: 1095

 

I collect ONE example of every ruler (if they made their own coins) in every country/Province, etc. Presidents of Republics don't count, but I collect ONE example of each Republic.

*Roman Empire (Laodicea), Hammered Coinage, Macrinus – 217AD-218AD, Tetradrachm, ND (217AD-218AD), Billon, NGC CH MS 5/5-5/5, (From the Michel Prieur Collection),



Roman Empire, Hammered Coinage, Trajan Decius – 249AD-251AD, Tetradrachm, ND (250AD-251AD),(From the Michel Prieur Collection) (10 Known), NGC MS 4/5–3/5.

 

Thanks to everyone, who voted in the poll.
Also, thanks to everyone, who posted their collecting sub-areas.
Of course, people can continue to vote in the poll, and continue to post their collecting sub-areas, and I encourage people to do so. I just wanted, to capture the poll results, at this point in time.
It is interesting to see, what areas and sub-areas, the participating Ancients CoinTalkers (the CoinTalkers who participated in this poll) collect.
As of Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 2:44 am CST (Central Standard Time in the USA), if my calculations are correct, 89 Ancients CoinTalkers have voted in the poll. The poll began on Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 10:45 am CST.
As a collector of ancient and medieval Chinese coins, I was encouraged, and slightly surprised, to see that 14.6% of the participating Ancients CoinTalkers collect ancient or medieval Chinese coins.
As a collector of Byzantine coins, I was encouraged, and slightly surprised, to see that 34.8% of the participating Ancients CoinTalkers collect Byzantine coins.
Ancient Roman coins came in 1st, and 78.7% of the participating Ancients CoinTalkers collect ancient Roman coins.
Ancient Greek coins came in 2nd, and 60.7% of the participating Ancients CoinTalkers collect ancient Greek coins.
Here is a snapshot, of the poll, as of Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 2:44 am CST.

 

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