How far back do we define coins as ancient?

Is it post-Roman era or anything before medieval times?

 

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I would say from the seventy century B.C. till the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the mid fifteenth century.

 

Sorry.. that's the seventh century B.C.

 

In the west it would be any coin from Roman times or earlier, and quite possibly some of the Barbarian silver issues from the 6th century and earlier. In the east, any Byzantine coinage through 1453 CE, and if you're talking about Asian coins, any coins until first contact with the West would probably be considered ancient.

And with all of that said, you will probably find many coins that fall somewhere in between and are hard to classify. Everyone has different ideas about what an ancient coin is. It's hard to pick a specific date.

 

Some say the cut should be when the manufacture of coins began being mass produced by machines. As far as Western Civilization is concerned, I tend to believe it is the end of the Byzantine era.

 

This is the frequently asked question with no answer. Ancient collectors often include Byzantine which can be nearly 1000 years newer than some Europeans that we would classify as medieval. A reasonable cutoff can be 500 AD but you can't get too strict on such dates depending on which cultures you collect. I suggest not worrying bout artificial labels created by modern authors of high school history books. They only apply to European lands and split differently for collectors of the Near East.

I collect coins made by hammering by hand and not by machines. That allows easier definitions that don't have quite as many footnotes.

 

Yeah, that's a good way to deal with it - method of coin production / technology used. I'm a silver type collector, so mine's pretty clear cut, too.

Though, if I come across, say, a 1% silver coin, should I bother or must I oblige?

 

Same here.

Except in one case, an 1861 US double eagle.........and I de-slabbed it immediately.

 

There are ancients with about 1% on purpose. They believed the coin must contain the silver value of the denomination but inflation kept reducing that amount. The coins stayed the same size but the silver dropped to next to nothing before Aurelian restored what he considered a good amount of one part silver to 20 parts copper. At these levelsa silver color wash was needed to make the coins look silver. For your collection theme, I would suggest a coin with partially intact silver wash but showing enough of the base color that everyone would know the truth of the matter.

Aurelian 4.77% silver with wash. The KA in exergue is the Greek numeral for 20 (K) and 1 (A). It is a silver coin and the people who made it took care that the alloy was correct.

 

That sounds 4.77 times better than the 1% silver coins .

Currently though, I was looking into the Aegina Drachmas but my concern is that I'll come across replicas, especially if I buy them online from Greece given its economic situation. I've been collecting more modern (18th century to present) silver coins. And, I could go with a TPG slabbed coin, but I'd rather save some coin and go raw.

I'm really digging the super high relief and the deep incuse reverse is a nice contrast:

 

@iPen,


www.numisbids.com
www.sixbid.com
www.vcoins.com

The first two are auction aggregator sites, a convenient way to keep track of upcoming auctions. The third is a fixed-price ancient coin dealer "co-op". The vcoins dealers abide by a code of ethics. If you later find evidence that a coin you purchased is inauthentic (unlikely), you can return the coin for refund.

 

You know how to pick them. Save your pesos and shekels, because that's one pricey coin to collect at the grade like the one you are showing.

 

Don't buy ancient coins from Greece full stop.

Check out AncientJoe's example, it will make you weep.
http://www.colosseocollection.com/p168103053/h1240c5d4#h1240c5d4

 

Buying from a country that forbids export of coins is not the way to build a collection.

 

And yet, you still have hammered coins being produced in Annam (Vietnam) well into the mid-twentieth century...

 

Really? Can you show some? All I have seen are cash type and perfectly round so I assumed they were machine made. Perhaps I need to specify that 'hammered' does not use collars. There are some late hammered like wire money of Peter I and some Indian states. I collect the first but not the second (and don't really know why).

 

Here are some hammered coins dated as late as 1910 from Bhutan.

http://db.stevealbum.com/php/chap_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=4&chapter=15&page=1


Cambodia had hammered coins in the 19th century, if I am not mistaken.

 

Interesting. I could not see the enlarged photos but some of those do seem to be unround.

 

I also couldn't see the larger images.

 

http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces54202.html