Hi, I have just come across this site and wondered if there are any collectors of ancients. I am a UK dealer with a large stock of ancient coins and artefacts and am interested in buying, selling and trading with other collectors across the world. If anybody is interested please contact me. Thanks Maxxy
I collect ancients, most Greek coins. Why don't you post the coins you want to sell on eBay? That will reach the largest number of potential buyers. Or you could post them on your Web site and tell people here and elsewhere that they're for sale.
Hi Reid, Yes I will do that, I am just about to post my website on the forum, please tell me what you think. It is very homespun at the moment as I do all of the buying, cataloguing, photography, scanning, design, shipping etc etc and it really does become time consuming, (maybe I'll have to employ someone soon). I know there are many faults, ie images, lack of information etc but if I did all of this I would only list a few things each day. I do sell on ebay but I also need to increase the traffic to my web site. Thanks for the input Maxxy
vicarious pleasures I do not exactly "collect" ancients, though I have a few, mostly Classical and Archaic Greek. I read a lot and I write some. I do buy on occasion, if I am working on an article or doing other research. At some level, books fail to deliver the physical reality of the materials. (For that matter, I read about flying, but being in the cockpit is better.) I guess my question is: How long have you been doing this? Most dealers of ancients start out as collectors. Most coin dealers do, actually, but soon leave collecting behind when they turn professional. You find a lot of "vest pocket" dealers. The Celator has ads for over 100 dealers, but only 2000 subscribers. So, it is a pretty tough market to be in. eBay is OK for some people. I do not use it myself. I like meeting people. I save my money for coin shows. Even so, at the last ANA convention, I bought no coins and three books.
I am wondering how it is possible to be a "dealer with a large stock of ancient coins" and not know that there are people who collect ancient coins. Pretty much the only way this is possible is if you suddenly inherited a coin-dealing company you had no prior involvement in whatsoever. I'm also curious how a thread from 2002 was suddenly resurrected now.
I didn't know that Reid Goldsborough used to be a member here. (See his articles on the Medusa-anchor drachms, quoted extensively in my Apollo Pontika thread, as well as his very useful article on Athenian Owls.) Of course, he hasn't posted anything here since 2007!
This thread was initiated in 2002. Back then the ancient coins sections didn't event exist here at CT. Thus, the occasionnal thread/question about ancient was easily lost in a world coins maelström ! Q
This absolutely takes the cake in the oldest zombie thread I’ve ever seen on this site in a few years. Bravo
I just updated my About profile on a different site entirely where my username is Hermes. Here is my new avatar there. From this: Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 46 Auction date: 2 April 2008 Lot number: 271 Price realized: 50,000 CHF (approx. 49,251 U.S. Dollars as of the auction date) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. Lot description: Greek Coins Lampsacus Stater circa 394-350, AV 8.39 g. Head of Hermes l., wearing large brimmed causia. Rev. Forepart of Pegasus r. within incuse square. Boston 1589. SNG France 1143 (these dies). Baldwin 13d and pl. I, 25. Extremely rare. A magnificent portrait well struck in high relief and good extremely fine For the better part of the 4th Century B.C. the city of Lampsacus issued gold staters that paired the forepart of Pegasus with a variety of obverse types. Few Greek cities were issuing gold at this time, and the fact that Lampsacus was able to start such a project, and maintain it for five or six decades, speaks volumes of the wealth and importance of the city. To add further perspective, we may note that Lampsacus had issued an important group of electrum staters in earlier times. Its gold staters apparently enjoyed wide distribution, for at least one hoard containing them, the Avola find of 1888, was unearthed near Syracuse (indeed, an example of this Hermes-head type was present in that group). This stater features the youthful head of Hermes, the messenger-god of the Greeks, which was echoed in two important, contemporary electrum coinages [missing text] staters of Cyzicus and hectes of Mytilene. In all, Baldwin documented 41 issues of Lampsacene staters in her 1924 study, which is still the standard work on these coinages. Of these, eight bore figural types and 32 bore portraits, revealing an obvious preference at Lampsacus for the latter category. The chief difficulty Baldwin encountered in ordering the series was the surprising lack of die links between issues; in fact only once was a reverse die carried over from one issue to another, thus making a global die study impossible. She could, however, conduct die studies within each issue, and in the case of the Hermes staters, she was able to locate five examples struck by five obverse and four reverse dies. Estimate: 60000 CHF
