just testing ...what do you collect?

Hmm:

I collect Historically.

Focus is on:
- The Roman Republic
- Italia
- Makedon Kings
- Royal Egyptian Scarabs
- Carthage
- Etruria

Most of my collection is BCE time period. However, I do have around 150 different Roman Rulers from Augustus onwards, but I do not really focus there.

Nope, did not start in LRB's.

25 years ago I eschewed my US Collection and boldly entered Ancients with an Alexander III Drachm and 4 Athens Owl Tets. Then began to collect Roman Republic Denarii.


RR Anon AR Heavy Denarius Quadrigatus Didrachm 225-215 BCE Craw 28-3 Sear 31

 

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I'll never forget the feeling of holding the first few ancient coins I bought in my teens back in mid 80s.

I collect Biblical coins, Romans, and Medieval Europe.

 

Roman Imperial AND provincial, and I'll acquire anything that piques my interest. I especially like the Antonine and Severan dynasties, as well as the tumultuous mid-third century: Gallienus, Claudius II, Aurelian, etc. I particularly like coins featuring pagan deities and mythological scenes. I like a high-grade coin as much as the next fellow, but I have a great tolerance for lower-grade material, particularly if I know the coin is scarce and my opportunity to buy another would be limited.

 

I have 3 main collections going on at the same time. The first is the 12 Caesars. I have 2 sets in silver and would not mind a third. I also collect medieval coins connected to the family of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The final collection spans ancient and medieval coins. It involves collecting coins of people dramatized by Shakespeare. So if a historical figure is mentioned in a play and has issued coins, then I want that coin for this collection.

 

I started with Roman Imperial coins that I got at a local coin shop. I found my first copy of David Sears catalog in a used book store, I still have it, the catalog it was printed in the 1960's and the numbers were always off because I could not afford a new catalog.
I then specialized to Women on Roman coins then that collection was sold, because I figured I could never afford to finish it.

I still wanted to collect but I could not decide on what my focus would be. Then one day in a group lot I found a coin that stumped me. When I finally attributed it I was hooked and I thought it would be an easy collection to complete. After all I was only looking for 50 coins. LOL It took almost 20 years to complete and I helped add new types to that original list.That collection was Byzantine AE tetartera.

Here is the first tetarteron that starting my obsession

MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1968


I still look for better examples, but I have now expanded my collecting to all 12th century Byzantine coinage, after all I had already found the hard ones.


Alexius I Comnenus, AU Hyperpyron SBCV-1913 , My first gold coin added to the collection this year.

 

That coin is...is

 

I'll bite. What do you collect? Jewelry made out of ancient coins?

 

I totally dig Biblical coins. The Widow’s Mite is my favourite.

I have a few general ancients mixed in.

Ancient coins pwn all others.

Erin

 

Wow, Bing. My first big boy job right after I was graduated from college was $96 a month out of which I had to pay for really snazzy haircuts but included fine dining and a nice personal trainer fellow to suggest exercises that would help me lose weight. I remember the company motto, "If the Army wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one," I stopped buying coins during that period and sold most of the ones I had in 1974 when stationed in Washington DC. Things were cheaper then. So was Uncle.

 

So I came here thinking it would cover all coins, not just ancients. Nothing in the title suggested otherwise, so I was going to talk about collecting Morgans, walking Liberty halves, and Peace dollars. But I guess I'll wait for the right thread to come along.

 

Hi, @John Skelton ! Right site, just the wrong subsection. Here's the US coin forum: https://www.cointalk.com/forums/us-coins/

 

Yeah, as a Private in 1968, the pay was rather pitiful. I was drafted after I was married, although I had my draft notice as an early wedding present.

 

When I collect ancients, I collect Greece. My collecting interests are all over the place.

 

peace dollars

 

I collect Roman and Greek. I collect what I find attractive, I don't have a specific area.

 

Yes, I know about that forum, but the headline doesn't indicate that this was from the ancients forum. Unless there is something I'm missing, all signs pointed to the post being general in nature.

 

...and if you ever feel the need to part with your type II. I would humbly take it off your hands.

 

Curious: I never see headlines specifying threads as US Coin Forum EITHER.

 

You're right. I can usually tell if the thread is about ancients by the headline, so I typically skip those. But I didn't see that here.

 

Let me start with a caveat: many of my recollections here are from so many years ago that I cannot vouch for total accuracy - coin prices, dates, events etc. - my memory is not very good now. But here goes:

The first Ancient coins I remember owning were a couple of very low grade Roman asses that an uncle bought for me as a gift just before the outbreak of WW2 in 1939. I don’t remember where he bought them or their attribution - there were no coin books I had access to and there was no internet or computers for research.

I didn’t start collecting and researching Ancient coins seriously until 1951 (San Antonio, Texas) - my purchases were all from the Coin Department of Joske’s of Texas Department Store in San Antonio.

I have about the same recollection - I was a private in the USAF in 1950 making $87 per month - payday required settling my GI laundry account and putting enough money aside for the next month’s entertainment etc. - there wasn’t much left over for coin purchases. I was already focused on Roman Imperials and all I could afford were average grade asses - I don’t recall any LRBs for sale - high grade asses/dupondii, Sestertii, denarii and for sure Aurei were out of my reach until a few years later.

The most significant purchase I made during that time was the newly published Klawans book (Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins) in 1953 - that opened the door on attributions and research for me - I loved that little book - still do! When a bought a second hand Volume I “Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum” (BMCRE) by Harold Mattingly later that year I was walking on air - it is still my main research resource.

To be continued ……………