Non-believers.

Does anyone have this issue where your relatives just don't accept the fact that the coin you own is indeed ancient?!
I usually don't share every coin that I buy with my parents, however if the coin is iconic I'll show it to them. For instance I showed this Alexander III lifetime drachma, and while they said it looked cool, they just couldn't believe the coin is over 2300 years old! and that a coin of this age which would have existed during the time of Jesus, and the might of being an Alexandrian coin couldn't be real! and the fact that I paid around 60 bucks (Vcoins) meant that I got scammed as a coin like this, if it even 'exist' would cost in the thousands!
This belief extends to all the coins without a Gregorian date!!

Ancient coins can be cheap depending on it's popularity, quantity, and conditions, even we were once surprised by the availability of them early in our hobby!
Tell me your stories!

 

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It took my family several years to come around to the fact that they were real—and they are still mostly uninterested. My daughter has the collector bug, however, so once she is a bit older I’ll have a partner in crime!

 

Do you REALLY believe ancient coins are really ancient...? You probably also believe the earth is a globe ? Come on Jay, wake-up!

 

I rarely talk about my collection outside of forums on line as I get the same reaction from just about everyone who never collects them. Once in a great while I find someone mildly interested, and then I bend their ear until I notice the eyes go glassy. I don't know how many here know I used to be a body language expert and even taught it to police, military interrogators, Navy Seals, etc. I think I'm pretty good at identifying when someone is not interested in the topic being discussed (unlike my wife). There are not many people outside of you guys and gals that have any interest.

 

There are some impressive collections of ancient coins in Australian museums. Maybe a trip to one of these museums would convince your parents . I never had that problem with my parents . When I was 12 years old (1960) my father took me to a local coin show & bought me 2 coins for $15.00 each. One of the coins was a denarius of Septimius Severus in Ex.F. condition & the other was a common date Liberty 2 1/2 dollar American gold coin in A.U. condition. We were both more intrigued with the Roman coin . I no longer have either coin but today the gold coin would be worth about $200.00 & the denarius about $100.00. I no longer collect U.S. coins but still collect ancient coins 60 years later .

 

Yes, I was also surprised that so many ancient coins were available at modest prices. I was at the Porta Nigra in Trier and saw some Roman Imperial coins for sale for about $40. I really had no idea before then just how many ancient coins were extant. Well, that led me to check on eBay just to see if they had any for sale, and that was how I started collecting ancients.

 

Just try to tell someone from china that you collect ancient chinese coins. The facial expression is always priceless. "Oh no, this poor, stupid foreigner, didn't he know that all these coins are fake"

 

Oh yeah, they question any ancient coins all the time. If it's two thousand years old, wouldn't it be super rare and valuable? How come you have it?

But that's nothing compared the the outright skepticism that my family met these two pieces with. I believe the first was accused of being paper mache, and the second I found in a garbage heap:

 

Yeah, both of those look like classic junk. I would gladly take them off your hands.

I have had a similar situation. The only person that believed me was my mom. I didn't show her every coin I got but just ones I know she would find of some interest & she could comment on it.

What was better is we'd watch a special with Mary Beard, PBS, or another historian and she'd remember I would have a coin of whatever figure was discussed.

My dad knows I collect them & for someone who had a big interest in greek/roman history in school, he has never cared to see even 1, his reply is "whatever makes you happy" in a smug way.

It doesn't matter. I have my internet community & instagram to share them with.

 

My family aren't so sceptical, but the bigger issue has been indifference for sure. It took about 10 minutes to convince them ancient coins are real and plentiful, but it's proving a much more difficult task to actually interest them in any of my coins.

However, I think I've made some headway with my father in recent months. He still doesn't care much for the coins themselves, but has been much more interested in my long rants on the history recently. At this point, I'll take what I can get!

 

About two years ago I was at work with a sestertius on my desk (I keep a collection of duplicates at work to play with). One of the guys I worked with - for about 8 years - stopped as he walked by and said "Is that a sestertius?" Turns out he's been collecting ancient Roman coins for years. Who knew?

We were always friendly before, but now we chat Roman coins all the time. But he is the only person outside Coin Talk who shares my interest in ancients.

My only problem: I can't seem to get him enthused about Byzantines! But I'm working on it.

 

Luckily when newsworthy hoard finds are publicised you can see that ancient coins are not scarce cf those Celtic Gold Staters found recently.

 

No one in my family is even mildly interested. There was a slight (very) amount of interest when I showed off a 78 gram Ptolemaic drachm. But then they asked who the weird guy on the front of the coin was and as soon as I said Zeus their eyes glazed over.

So I no longer share purchases with family, just the weirdos like me on Cointalk.

 

While my parents and relatives have never questioned the authenticity of my coins, they either aren't interested in them or believe that I'm simply wasting money. I must admit it's a little bit frustrating, not being able to talk about them to anyone in real life.

 

I have no issue with the garbage heap (Sikhote-alin shrapnel?) but wonder about what was done to 'process' fossils to make them look like that. Coins are cleaned but we look down on adding anything or repairing problems. What is the backstory on fossils?

 

My family knows they're real, it took some time however. Perhaps it helps we're Europeans, and history is everywhere around us, I dont know. It doesn't matter, because they don't really care. Except for the occassional "how much are they worth" conversations. Which is also the first thing people mention (and seem to care about) when they see the coins, or hear about me collecting them.

 

I agree. Kind of like a secret life we all live.

I used to live in s place where I could talk in person with other collectors on a weekly basis, but no longer.

SC

 

A particularly vocal skeptic I've encountered was a dealer of US coins that I would see at shows over the course of several years.

I had purchased many US coins from him but every time I talked about ancients, he questioned how it could be known that they're real, etc. I used the logical counter arguments that the same methods for authenticating US coins are used but with the added benefit of a few hundred extra years of knowledge and more data to go on with unique production abnormalities.

He refused to back down so I conceded the argument by no longer buying from him. Some people wouldn't believe their chair is real even if they're sitting on it.

 

A couple years ago I made the mistake of trying to sell ancients on Facebook. I did make a couple sales, but mostly it was people accusing me of selling fakes, trying to rob me, etc.

My daughters are too young to fully understand the meaning of "ancient" (Ancient to them is the 1990s, anything beyond that is incomprehensible!) but they love looking at the coins with me and asking "Who's that?" My wife prefers not to ask questions as long as the lights and water stay on, and my other family members just aren't interested. I have gifted some coins to a handful of friends who were interested, but the interest died when they learned that the Constantine follis I gave them is worth less than $20.

Oh, well.

 

I believe some "real" ancient US coins from the late 18th to early 19th were made in the mid- 19th century specially for collectors from old but original dies by mint workers for some cash!
I got this info from CT US people's posts, so what is real? This is not the same as ancient restitution issues since they are easy to spot-these I mention are indistinguishable forgeries!