New member of the ancient coins club introducing himself

Hello, I am currently focused on 19th century American coinage, but I thought I'd pick up a side hobby, and decided to set part of my yearly coin budget towards getting 3 or 4 Roman Republic silvers per year (I'm a big fan of the pre-Imperial era).

Not knowing much about Roman coinage, I just bought an NGC (graded VF) M. Tullius Roma silver denarius. I should be receiving it in the mail by Friday. I probably overpaid for the slab, but honestly, I don't know enough yet to dare buy raws and not get a fake. Also, all my US 19th century coins are slabed, so this makes it easier for storage purposes (I have NGC slab holders in my safe already with coins).

So why did I start with M. Tullius? Because it was the first picture of a pre-Imperial coin I ever saw as a kid, and its always stayed on mind...and I told myself I would get one someday. I will post pictures when I get it, but would appreciate any information on this coin you can provide in the meantime, and any guidance you can give me, as I intend to purchase more Roman Republic coins in the future.

 

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Welcome to the Dark Side of coin collecting...

 

Thanks, while I love 19th century US coins and will continue to buy them, let's face it, everyone and their grandmas collect sitting liberties, barber dimes and quarters, Morgan dollars, etc. I haven't met too many ancient coin collectors. It's good to have a side distraction in an area where there are a tiny but highly dedicated collector base, as appears to be the case with ancient coins...and the same can be said of this forum (I've been reading a few of the threads here)

 

welcome!!

=> do you happen to have a photo of your new slabbed coin?

Yah, I hate slabbed coins, but I am trying very hard not to be a judger ...

Oh, and before you buy your 2nd ancient coin, you'd be amazingly brilliant if you asked a couple of the experts here, "beforehand"

again => "welcome" (the more the merrier)

"have fun"

 

Definitely +1

 

Congratulations on joining the club! I focus on the Roman Republic myself. The Roman Republic is a great area to collect with many, many knowledgeable collectors and a ton of good books on the coinage. I know that you like slabbed coins, but especially among specialized RR collectors slabs are quite frowned upon and many of the great coins in the series are scarce enough that slabbed examples simply don't exist, or at least there aren't any nicer slabbed examples. On top of that, if you stick with good dealers, you really don't need to buy slabbed coins unless you happen to see a good deal on one.

Some sites that will help you learn about the RR series and ancients in general:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ - Doug is a member here and his website is a great general knowledge website. You can learn a bit about forgeries, why it is impossible to grade most ancients(in the sense that you can grade moderns) and he has a really cool page discussing his 100 favorite coins, among other things. I

http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/ - Andrew is one of the foremost collectors and scholars as far as RR coins go. His site is an awesome resource

http://www.acsearch.info/ - Look up coins here when you're looking for examples or comparing prices

Feel free to PM me with any questions you might have as well. I can definitely help evaluate any RR purchases you're considering and I promise I won't snipe any out from under you!

 

@stevex6 These are all from the seller as I don't have it yet since I purchased the coin earlier. Ignore the symbol on the right hand side, that's the pen detection symbol on the screen of my Samsung Note 5.

Obviously I will ask you all before purchasing any more, but as I stated, this particular coin was something I told myself a long time ago I had to have eventually. I've been wanting it since I was a kid when I saw it pictured in a numismatics publication.

PS: Probably not the best example of it, but I can always upgrade later, and my budget has already been overextended for the year with several early 19th century American coins I've bought recently, and the expense of a new fire-proof safe.

 

That sure is a nice "first" Ancient. Welcome here. We look forward to seeing more when you get them.

 

Slabbed coins are probably a bad habit of being predominantly a 19th century US coin collector. Slabbed coins seem to be readily accepted in that crowd.

To be honest, I'm not ready to forego slabs, but eventually as I start to pick up more ancients, and I get to an example that's not readily available slabed, or not a nice enough example available slabed, I will reach out to you for advise on raw examples.

 

That is a nice enough coin and a good start, especially if you use it as a guide to your next purchase. You mention that you do not consider it 'best' so ask yourself how you would change it and make your next coin better in that manner. If that were my coin, the only thing that bothers me is the off center reverse losing the head of the charioteer. Others might not care about that but think the little bit of wear on the coin is a deal breaker. Others might want a coin with more tone. What we think is not important; what you think most certainly is.

I do have one strong opinion about this coin. It is slabbed. Leave it in the slab. I do not like and do not own slabs but I believe this one is overgraded on the strike number (they do not care about the centering???). You will have an easier time selling this coin to someone who is buying the slab than to someone who is buying the coin.

You will get opinions from many of us and we will agree on less than half of the questions you ask. Realize from the start that there is no 'right' answer to so many questions. Have fun.

 

Perfectly fine Sallent. Jus' an idea you could buy raw coins and put them in slab (your self), I know one of our members does that.

 

Welcome, @Sallent !

 

@dougsmit You asked what I would change since I acknowledged it is not the best. For my next Roman Republic coin, which i will probably purchase early next year, I would like for all the features to be there. As you mentioned, part of the head of the charioteer is missing. I would also like to get a nicer one, probably XF or AU. I'll see what's available then and go from there, but I honestly think this is a nice enough start myself.

I do hope though I don't get a lot of heat over slabs. It is just a habit coming from another area of numismatics where they are the norm. I am not opposed to raw coins, and I'm sure eventually I will pick up a few raw ancient coins, but yeah, I do prefer slabs for storage as I already have slab holders and slabbed coins stored in them.

 

I may do that too at some point when I become more comfortable buying raw ancients.

PS: Before this purchase, this is the oldest coin I had. One can say I've made quite a leap into the past here by going ancient. Makes that coin look like a spring chicken by comparison.

 

Welcome!

 

I hereby promise never to use the word slab here again. When I recommended not removing the coin, it was not read but was thrown back in my face. "@dougsmit Well, one can always crack slabs open if they bother you."

 

@dougsmit I meant that specific sentence in a more generalized way, and not necessarily at you. Going back over my post, I guess I could have phrased it better, or better yet, not even written it in the first place. I hope you will accept my sincere apology. I edited my post to remove it.

 

nice first ancient sallent, welcome!

vcoins is a good place to go and safely purchase ancient coins, still comparison shop however.

 

I just checked the price of auctions on acsearch.info for similar looking examples to mine. Looks like I did great by not clicking the "Buy it now" on Ebay and instead making a bit lower offer, then counteroffering again. I hit the nail on the head price wise. If I overpaid, it definitely wasn't by more than $10.

 

sallent, here is an acsearch "search" for your coin. you have to be a memeber to see prices, if you're thinking about ancients you really want to join anyway.

http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=tullius quadriga&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&currency=usd&thesaurus=1&order=0&company=