Two years collecting ancients

Congrats on two years! You've picked up some excellent coins along the way. Hopefully you've got many more years of collecting to come.

 

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@zumbly and Ominus1, if I had picked my top 10 favorite coins, instead of top 5, Gordies would have made up 4 out of the 5 spots in my top 6-10. This is in no way to diminish from how much I like Gordian, but simply due to the beautiful and interesting non-Gordians in my collection which I also like so much.

Also note that some of my highest grade coins didn't make the list. #4 is a VF and #3 has a die break on the flan, and even #5 has a weak reverse legend at 1 o'clock. If condition was everything, they wouldn't be there.

Thanks to this ancients forum and everyone's influence here, I've gotten to the point where I admire coins for more than just how well preserved they are. Some of my favorite coins are no better than VF, while some AU coins are at the bottom of the list. These days the theme, the coiner, the historical importance, mint, denomination, and the style matter as much if not more than the grade. That is a notion I would have laughed at when I was a US collector. Back then it was all about MS-64+ and CAC stickers, and which TPG graded the coin. Everything else was simply not that relevant. So I can therefore conclude that this forum has made me a better coin collector.

 

Great top 5 coins @Sallent
Keep up the great posts, you always have some really nice coins to share.

 

Major congrats, Sallent!

You rock!

Erin

 

Be nice or I'll send nightmares! I prefer to identify with Cassandra.

I have a couple predictions which you can believe or not. When Sallent or any of the rest of us have been collecting longer (perhaps much longer) there will be additions or modifications to his specialties/interests. He may still like Gordian but he will also like something else or have narrowed it down a bit to, perhaps, Gordian Provincials. In my earlier days I was very Septimius Severus centered but became more of a generalist in the last couple decades. Don't be too quick to put down any collecting idea. You may be there before you know it. That said, I'll say, "Kennedy Half Dollars???" Of course, I switched to ancients before the started making them so I never considered collecting them.

Having collected for a bit longer than Sallent, I find myself totally incapable of naming Five Favorites. In 2013, I did post a page on what was then my 99 1/2 favorite coins which actually showed something over 120 coins (new math!). I have updated it a coupe times deleting a loser and replacing it with a new favorite but I suspect there would be several others that would be different if I were to start over and do the page from scratch.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/favs.html


A big point here is that I have trouble picking 100 coins and I most certainly do not expect any of you to agree with my selections. I don't try for order within the hundred but obviously have some that may be in danger of being replaced. You may well wonder why anyone would buy that. We are fortunate they made so many ancient coins so we each can pick and choose.

 

Congrats man.
I still have a few more months before I can claim the 2 year of ancients.

First posts lol, my first post on ancient forum was asking questions about some crappy Arcadius that I paid way to much for.
The generosity of the fine people on this Ancients Forum led me away from years in the light across to this dark side, I found it quite comfy here.

 

I fixed that for you.

 

Congrats on the 2 years @Sallent
I started off with Morgan Dollars then slowly went towards the dark side. Still like the US coins and world paper money, some of them are really beautiful. But since I started collecting ancients my habits have changed quite a bit.

 

Morgans are beautiful. I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to collect a few of them. Same with paper money. I'll confess that these days I am not exclusively just collecting ancient coins. I've also started my own little silver stack. Not that I think the dollar will collapse anytime soon, but it's always good to diversify.

 

Hi Salent,

Morgans are beautiful. I still own the first one I bought at a very early age from a coin dealer.

But c'mon, what about the beautiful women on coins of ancient greece. Kyme, Larissa, Arethusa? Three of my favourites!

Peter

 

I see what you mean.

 

Congrats @Sallent !

My last couple years have been fleshing out sub-collections that I enjoy...

Here is a small representation of the 3 Punic Wars from the Carthage perspective:

First Punic War:

Carthage Zeugitania First Punic War 264-241 BCE Double Shekel 26 mm 13.9 g Wreathed Tanit Horse stndng r star above SNG Cop 185 Rare

Second Punic War:

Carthage Zeugitania AR ½ Shekel 17mm 3.8g 2nd Punic War 218-202 BC Sicily mint 216-211 BC Tanit l Horse r sun as double uraeus SNG COP 359

Third Punic War:

Carthage Third Punic War Serrate Double Shekel 149-146 BCE 12.8g 26mm Wreathd Tanit-Horse pellet raised leg SNG COP 404
Last coin minted by the Carthaginian Empire before they became extinct by the Romans.

 

Sallent, congrats on your 2nd year of collecting ancients. Hope you have 50 more as good or better.

~Doug

 

Fantastic coins. They are beautiful.

 

Thank you very much.

I feel you have a good eye. I have enjoyed those coins I acquired from you, as they fit well into some sub-collections that I have formed.

 

Happy anniversary @Sallent.

I guess the thing to get someone for a two year anniversary is cotton or china. Here are some of my coins from China, since I don't have any coins made from cotton. I picked these up after I had been collecting about two years.