Your Friends and Family perspective of ancient coins

I have yet to meet anyone in the flesh, outside of a bourse floor or a coin shop, that is, who I feel comfortable talking with about collecting these little discs. While trying to bring it up in the past to others, I saw numerous eyes glaze over like crullers. No body else in the world seemed interested, so I went solidly into the closet for years. My wife doesn't understand why anyone would buy something, especially something of decent value, and put it in a closet or a vault and rarely see it. A collector's mind is a little strange. But she enjoys seeing the really old coins the most. When I showed her my first medieval she was astounded to hold something 800 years old in her hand. As such, she doesn't understand at all why some Roman Coins go for $20 - $40 while some more relatively recent coins get priced at hundreds of dollars. Overall, her interest in my coins seems more polite than truly genuine, but she's into things that don't exactly grab my interest like a velociraptor as well. Thankfully she's not concerned as long as I don't drain our savings, which I really don't plan to.

 

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I don't have but 30 ancients, mostly US coins, but when I bring up the subject of ancients, the first question I get is how do you know they are as old as you think? When I talk about buying from a respected source, or patina, or cleaning coins that have been in the ground for hundreds of years, that's when their eyes usually roll back into their heads!

 

Same way you know your US coins are that old.

 

That's when they roll their eyes, look at me like I'm nuts, pat me on the shoulder (head if they could) and move on to other topics like the weather.

 

Be glad that most people don't know or care. If the world supply of modern coin collectors all of a sudden started collecting ancients, we would all be back to collecting US out of pocket change like I did in the 1950's. If everyone on Coin Talk ancients all of a sudden started bidding on lead tessera ---- I hate to think about it.

 

Ardy would have something to say about that.

I don't particularly want all and sundry knowing that I collect coins. I have shown my best friend a couple. She is polite. Husband is more interested in what I am spending

 

Thats the annoying thing about collecting anything and talking about it to outsiders, its always "what's it worth?, gets pretty old.

Still better then slabbed Cearal boxes and barf bag collection like http://sicksack.com/.

 

But then husband is paying for them.......

 

There was a day when a person could collect something known to be of no value and people understood that the stuff was trash. The problem is when people start competing for a decreasing supply. I forgot who it was but there was a coin dealer who on the side gathered McDonalds packaging, napkins, advertising etc. His friends would give him stuff (Hey, you want my plastic spoon?). I suspect a 1955 McD wrapper now has a following. Another coin dealer I know collects old Coke bottles. Some have prices more than some of his coins. I once gathered matchbooks but threw them away when it seemed silly. Some of you remember when a beer can collection needed a Billy Beer. Each of these subjects have had proponents that could not understand coins that would not fit in a coin slot.

 

LOL, well then, my fun collection just became a huge money making INVESTMENT. It would never be my intention, but money is not a bad salve to take care of that hurt...

 

Well, YEAH! When you have some awesome Avatars!

 

Thankfully, my brother collects ancients with me. He very rarely talks about it though, even to me. I have to bug him to see his new coins. But, he eventually gives in and I post them here.

The rest of my family and friends, however, thinks that all of the coins are fake and we're being scammed. It drives me insane. It's like trying to talk to a brick wall about ancients, they won't budge.

I want to get my nephew interested in ancients early, but I don't know how she'll react to it. His birthday's next month and I have a Constantine coin on the way for him.

At least I can come here and gush about the awesomeness that is ancient coin collecting.

You guys rock!

Erin

 

I feel that is always at the top of many people's minds when I discuss them: "How do you know they are not FAKE???"

 

@Alegandron . I think when it comes to anything really old like coins, and artifacts people tend to be wary of them. After all, there are a lot of fakes out there, its just that we know who to trust when we buy them.

 

Agreed...I have a few Egyptian Scarabs from the Pharaohs that I only capture due to their trusted provenance.

 

Ah yes, someone posted a bunch of theirs before, and that led me to go searching for them lol. Once I find one I like and can afford I'm adding it to my collection.

 

They are similar to collecting coins for me. However, Egyptian Pharaohs did not have coins, save for the Pharaoh Nektanebo II debate... (LOL, Ptolemies excepted, but they were Makedonon.) I enjoy having placemarkers in History.

 

One million denarii to whoever can convince my father that my ancient coins are real and that I am not being scammed

 

Send your skeptics to:
http://esty.ancients.info/numis/
A "Frequently Asked Questions" page, page 2 addresses why genuine coins are so available.

 

Icerain,
Great thread. I would fall into the majority section of the bell curve with my response. My wife puts up with all of my strange collecting habits such as old woodworking tools (that incidentally are put to good use), and actually likes a few of the more artistically executed coins. Similarly, my son appreciates Roman coins since he has visited Roman sites and has a relative point of reference. However, I will not gush on in detail to either since I know that too much information will trigger GES, otherwise known as glazed eyeballs syndrome.

As for friends, I generally don't show anything unless I know that they would be genuinely interested. The exception would be two very old friends that don't collect but are real history nuts and would definitely appreciate the coins, where they came from, symbolism, ruler and all that is fascinating to us collectors.