Ancient collectors re-introduction thread

With the recent influx of new collectors to this section, there will likely be a bit of confusion about who is who. So I figured we could start this thread out as a sort of roster. Post a bit about yourself and what you collect.

My real name is Bill. I started collecting ancients about five years ago. After graduating college with a double major in archaeology and history, where I wrote my undergrad thesis on Roman tesserae, I went to work for CNG as a cataloger. In the meantime, I've been patiently collecting and researching tesserae. My collection now has about 135 pieces (with about 30 more uncataloged).

ROME
PB Tessera (13mm, 3.30 g, 12 h)
Facing head of Medusa
Bestiarius standing facing, holding net and spear
Rostowzew 589 = Kircheriano 1167


The Roman bestiarii were arena fighters who fought against animals while wielding the spear and net. While professional schools for this role eventually developed, most animal fighters were condemned prisoners who barely survived a single match. They should be distinguished from the traditional gladiatiores, who fought only other men. It was in the role of bestiarius that Commodus won his arena fame and Herculean title.

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Good idea Bill.

My name is Chris. I have collected US coins for about 35 years, and ancients about 15. Right now, I am concentrating more on Sassanid and Central Asian coins, (Hepthalites, Kushan, Sogdian, etc), but have collections of Chinese cash, Roman, Byzantine, and some Greek. I also have a collection of early Thai coins, (trying to interest my wife). Maybe what I am proudest of the most is my references. I have around 650 books on coins, most of them ancient coins, and another 400-500 books on ancient history and historical economics.

Oh, and I am the worlds worst coin photographer.

 

Nice idea Bill and an outstanding tesserae, I have a handful of pieces but nothing like that!

My name is Bobby and I'm new here but not to ancients, been collecting for over 20 years but only got really interested in the last 5 or so. My main area of interest is the Tetrarchy and their offspring but I do have a few other 'pet' areas that consume me now and then. Currently enjoying Chinese ancients as a bit of a side project. I too studied Archaeology at college but my background is in Engineering and my main interest is collecting Neolithic and Prehistoric items. I found one of the below flint arrowheads when I was 13 and have been hooked ever since.

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All of the above date to around 4000BC (except top right 2500BC UK find), were found in North West Africa and are exceptional examples of their types. Look forward to seeing what others have to say.

 

hi all,
i’ve been collecting coins a little over a year, i mainly do ancients but i like older world and u.s. coins also. i’m a community college anatomy teacher, so work is unrelated to coins. kind of got sucked into ancients visiting a roman museum exhibit and was surprised to find out how affordable it is to get into ancient coins…so off i went.

didn’t know you did prehistory stuff bh, that’s pretty cool, and I had to google was a “tesserae” but that is interesting also Ard.

 

Thanks chrsmat

I'm never offering to help you move house

 

Im Mat & reside in L.A. I am 33 & have been collecting coins since the early 80s with a break in 95-2007. I mainly collected U.S. coins but over 4 years ago, thanks to being exposed to the ancient collectors here on CT, I started collecting ancients & havent stopped since.

I mainly focus on Roman Imperials but will acquire a greek or eastern ancient if the price is right.

I have a real soft spot for the empresses. Its an area of Romans I seem to absorb the most knowledge about, lol. Plus who dont like looking at pretty ladies :hail:.

I am currently building a side set of AR Lucilla & Crispina denarii. I am nearly done with Crispina & have some time left on Lucilla but its getting there, more then half complete.

 

Hi all!
I'm a British, American and Ancient coin collector (mainly)

I've been collecting Ancient coins since the middle of the London Olympics, when visiting London!

I just buy what looks cool or has an interesting story behind it...

Oh, I'm a YN too!

 

Does one coin a collection make? If so, count me in as a super-ultra-uber green ancient newbie.

 

We all started somewhere. I started with a facing head larissa bronze with a hard green patina. Anyone who can visualize that coin will see how this siren led me into this hobby.

 

I'm kinda new. Well, new again. My real name is JW but I have been going by Bing ever since someone compared me to Bing Crosby (not in looks). I've been collecting Ancients since 1981, from the time I bought my first Mark Anthony Legionary Denarius. I was born in West Virginia, raised in Michigan, went into the Army in 1968 where I remained until I retired in 2001 (33 years active). I have lived all over the U.S. from Baltimore to Monterrey and all manner in between. My overseas post were Vietnam (1 year), Germany (8 years) and Saudi Arabia (1 year). I have also done extended temporary duty in Korea, Japan, Spain, and Belgium. Since I retired from active service, I have been employed as a consultant, travelling all over the world to various embassies. Places such as Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Thailand, Philippines and others. I currently live in Tampa, FL

I now own around 600 Roman and Greek coins. And my collection seems to grow every month. I'm looking forward to sharing these coins on this forum.

 

My name is Randy I like early imperial, fallen horseman, and Greek coins the most, but not with a strict focus.

 

I collected US coins when I was a kid. Lost that collection and then restarted collecting again in November of 2011. It was only about a couple of weeks collecting when I figured out that I didn't want to collect year sets and set out to find something I wanted to collect. Then I found ancient coins and it's been that way ever since. I'm still a new collector, since November 20th 2011, I've learn a lot and yet have a long ways to go. But that's ok, I look forward to learning more about the ancient world and the coins issued then.

My focus right now is building a Roman Imperial ruler set, as of this date I'm up to 55 rulers and plan to go as far as I can until the coins are out of my budget range. I figure the most I might be able to get is around 80. I also collect other regions, anything I like and in my budget range. I've managed to get coins from Byzantine, Carthage, Judaea, Chinese cast coins, so far. Right now I have 91 attributed coins. Getting close to 100 coins.

Here is my very first coin.



Augustus, Macedon, Philippi, AE 19mm (Semis).

OBV: VIC - AVG, Victory standing left on base holding wreath and palm.

REV: COHOR PRAE PHIL, Three standards in honor of the Praetorian Guard's battle between Augustus and Marcus Antonius.

REF: RPC I 1651, SGICV 32, SNG Cop 305, BMC 23, SNG ANS 677

SIZE: 19mm, 4.7g

GRADE: F

 

I'm pretty new to collecting, not only ancients but coins in general. I started in Nov. 2011 and started relatively quick on foreign coins. Though I knew about ancients back then I did not know what to look for. Last year I started to read more about ancients online and in books, and decided this was the year to start buying. Though I'm sticking with Greek coins for now, my plan is to broaden out and eventually get into other eras and areas of ancients.

 

I'm Doug and I started collecting ancients in (or slightly before) 1963 when I was in high school and took Latin. I bought as many coins as I could afford until 1974 when poverty drove me to sell all but three 'special to me' coins but I kept most of my books and an interest. In the mid 1980's I started again but never replaced some of the highlights of that first collection (who out there has my coins - admit it). I joined the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington (DC) and learned a lot from a number of really brilliant people.

In 1997, I have an unexplainable desire to learn to code web pages in HTML. I did not know what subject to use for practice but at that exact time I became interested in a friend's collection of late Roman bronzes (I had always collected Septimius Severus and earlier). That friend was writing a book and I took photos for it (you should own Victor Failmezger's book if you collect Diocletian through Jovian). My first post had two pages one called 'sev' and one 'notsev'. My intention was to replace each of these pages regularly but since the free web space I was using (Geocities) allowed more space, I never got around to deleting the old stuff. I posted more or less regularly each Friday until 2003 when I retired and decided I would not have enough money to keep buying coins while not working so I stopped updating the page for almost 5 years. I did participate in online coin talk groups (Numism-L was first) and discovered that retirement was not as impoverishing as I had feared so I started collecting again (but not at a pace that Stevex6 would appreciate). I discovered Coin Talk in 2009 and enjoyed the interface with beginners there who seems unwilling to stick their heads up on some other venues populated by more expert collectors. I hoped this contact would give me ideas for pages to add to my site (there were 150 by then) but instead I spent my free time typing here (and a couple other similar lists) instead of writing new pages for the site. I have good intentions to add pages but I am realistic enough to expect it to be one a year rather than one a week.

If you have not visited my site, feel free. It has moved twice since Geocities folded but everything since the beginning is now here:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/

When asked what I collect, I answer: "Coins I like at prices I can afford." About 25% of my coins relate to Septimius Severus and 75% are Roman. I have a few Greek and Eastern (mostly Indian) having rather recently expanded my date range to more or less 1400's but I have not become interested in machine made coins. I am very interested in coins that teach me something and am fond of technical oddities of just about any sort. When I stared collecting, I was told I was wasting my money buying such junky coins when I could pay more and get higher grades. Times have changed and there are now more people buying coins that I consider too ugly for consideration so I guess I have been transformed into a condition snob without even moving. I expect coins to have readable legends (particularly mintmarks if from a period that used them) and what we call 'eye appeal'. Today I ordered a coin worn to fine with a nice surface which I prefer to EF details on a corroded hunk of metal that most seem to prefer. I don't plan on selling my collection so I don't worry about things like appreciation in value. I suggest you don't either. One of my favorite dealers over the last phase (late 80's to present) Frank Robinson once said, "Love your coins for what they are, not for what they are worth." He is a wise man.

That said I do have perhaps a thousand coins I really don't want but I have trouble selling coins (remembering how it hurt in 1974) so I prefer to trade unless we are talking about duplicates (which I get a lot more of as I get older and forget what I have). I could never be a coin dealer and have to sell something I love just because you are standing there waving money.

Now you know me and, hopefully you know better than to ask a question and expect a short answer. :yawning:

 

for any of you guys are are new to ancients (like me), bookmark dougsmits page linked above.:yes:

 

My name is Ron. I started collecting about 1955 trying to fill up my Lincoln penny folders out of circulation and got all but 4 Lincolns. In the summer of 1975 I went to a small local coin show and ending up trading a bunch of silver dollars for a Trajan sestertius. Later that year I answered an ad by John Barton(Owl ltd) in The Numismatist and ordered a Trajan Denarius in EF with great style and portrait and another coin. Barton let me pay them off over 6 months and I received a full page letter from him in which he said the Trajan was a minor masterprice of Roman coinage. Over the next 2 years i bought other coins from him on time payment, including a EF fine style P. Clodius Turrinus, which I kept for almost 30 years before selling it on Ebay.

Also about 1977 I bought a copy for $95 of Crawford's Roman Republican Coinage, which I still have and began to specialize in RR coins. Back then I could buy nice VF for $30 and was amazed that I could buy an almost pure silver coin 2,000 years old for that amount and the Crawford book was full of detailed information, so I concentrated on RR denarii. I also collected Hadrian and Trajan and Antonine denarii.

I had one theft of coins and I had sold most of the others by 2006. I became interested again in RR coins in 2010 and have purchased about 10 coins since. I am on a limited budget and can afford few coins now. I actually specialize in RR books, and in addition to the Crawford book I also have an original Grueber's BMCRR , as well as RR auction catalogs such as Haeberlin 1933, Leo Benz and Bank Leu 17; I am missing Sydenham RR book. With books I don't have to keep them in a bank or worry much about theft.

I especially like the RR denarius of C Calpurnius Piso l f frugi(Cr 408) and have 3 different varieties out of over 485. Since I can only add 2 or 3 new coins each year, I barely qualify as a collector, but I enjoy reading the reference books and posts on line.

 

Just an aside folks........


Bing.......Bless you for your service to this great nation of ours.


And now, you folks carry on.........

 

Thanks. This is a great nation with ideals worth fighting for.

 

Hi I'm Cucumbor, aka Potator II on some other forums, aka JC for my family and relatives...and I collect coins,

I've been collecting mainly roman imperial and republic coins for more than 35 years now, with soft spots for Plautilla, the divi series and more recently for wolf & twins roman imperial coins. My other main focus is a feudal coinage minted in a very small area around Lyon, France where I currently live and called Dombes.

My collection for those interested is here, at Forvm Ancient Coins : http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=11724

I also have a website which is slighlty becoming a reference site for the Dombes coinage : http://monnaiesdeladombes.blogspot.fr/
I will pardon all of you for not visiting it as I know of just one guy in the USA silly enough to actively collect them.

Q

 

Agreed. Btw I am a combat vet from the first gulf war.