ANCIENT COINS BEGINNERS’ FAQ THREAD

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Gavin Richardson, Oct 6, 2018.

  1. Stevearino

    Stevearino Well-Known Member

    Thanks, everyone! When invited over to “the dark side” as several CTers have called the collecting of ancients, it’s nice to have a little flashlight (torch for those across the pond) to help us find our way.

    Steve
     
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  3. Deacon Ray

    Deacon Ray Artist & Historian Supporter

    Thank you, Gavin, for the interesting post! Sorry I'm late to the party—I've been occupied with a charity project.

    For an excellent ancient Judaean coin reference site, I'd like to recommend the Israel Numismatic Society's MENORAH COIN PROJECT at: http://menorahcoinproject.org

    As far as outstanding dealers in Biblical coins, who are constantly acquiring new inventory, I recommend: https://mrbcoins.com & https://www.zuzimcoins.com
     
  4. Marshall

    Marshall Junior Member

    Stylistically, this appears to be an early ruler with his profile facing right.

    It is Copper/brass and weighs 198.8 grains. It is approximately 29 mm in diameter, but appears to have been cut at two edges at some point.

    So far I have not found an example with tha "A" followed by the "C" on the right. I'm still looking.
     
  5. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Perhaps it is too late but the first thing to learn is that sellers of absolute junk late Romans often use terms like Constantine era to mean anything remotely Roman. Since the name Constantine was last used by Constantine XI about 1100 years after Constantine I, I suppose one could make a case for this being acceptable.

    If you asked some of us, certainly me, you would be advised not to start out with unidentifiable or marginally identifiable bulk coins even at $1 each. You will find few as nice as that Byzantine, I would suspect, and you will be a lot more prepared to ID even ones that nice after gaining a little experience with coins with more detail. The same $40 could have bought you 4 or 5 slightly better coins from almost anyone who has collected a while and outgrown this level material or, perhaps, one really decent coin that might still be in your collection in a decade or a lifetime. I still have three coins I owned over 50 years ago. I also have coins I regret buying now but probably contributed to my education as much as they cost.

    Finally, I'd suggest a moderator be asked to move posts to this thread starting with #14 to a separate thread and lock this FAQ thread so only FAQ type posts are here and specific cases do not make it too long to be of use for the original purpose. I can not fault Marshall for not realizing the patterns of posts here but it is a lot easier on all concerned if we start new threads for new things and add comment posts only to threads that are on the same subject. When you desire to find something again, I suspect you will understand why I feel this way on the matter. Welcome.
     
  6. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

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  7. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

  8. Craig Z

    Craig Z Member

  9. Clavdivs

    Clavdivs Well-Known Member

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  10. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    Another very common question from newcomers is "what is this coin worth?".

    To answer that question you need to know what it is. Once you've determined that, and the following links can also be useful in that regard. These are some of the main places we look when trying to determine what to pay for a coin:

    CNG's archive of sold coins. An excellent resource and it is free.
    ACsearch. This has become a paid service. If you don't have a subscription you won't be able to see the prices realized at auction. Sometimes you can look at the listing, see which auction house sold it including date, auction number, and lot number, and then go to that auction house's website and check their archives directly
    Vcoins. A conglomeration of online coin ancient coin stores. Use this to check the offering price for coins similar to yours.
    MA-shops. Similar to Vcoins but based in Europe.

    Of course you can also do an advanced search on eBay, specifying "sold" coins, but there are so many fakes and so many uneducated buyers that it is difficult for a newcomer to sort fact from fiction.

    ...

    Newcomers will of course need to learn about fake coins, how they are made, how to determine if a coin is fake, and where to go to see listings of fake coins.

    Resources for learning how fakes are made and how to detect them:

    http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/fakes/cast.htm
    http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/fakes/struck.htm
    Forum Ancient Coins' "Learn to Identify Fakes Coins"
    http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/fakes.html (part of CoinTalk member @Valentinian's extensive website about ancient coins)
    http://ancientgalleonllc.com/uncategorized/identifying-fake-ancient-coins/

    Databases of known fake coins:

    https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/
    http://www.forgerynetwork.com/default.aspx

    Extensive lists of known sellers of fake coins (heavy on eBay dealers; always check for the seller name here before considering purchase of an eBay coin unless you know the dealer to be reputable):

    Forum Ancient Coins "Notorious Fake Sellers List"
    Warren Esty's (CoinTalk's @Valentinian) list of disreputable sellers

    ...

    The best online resource for learning about and attributing coins of the Ptolomaic empire is The PtolemAE Project: http://ptolemybronze.com/

    The best online resource for coins with "man-faced bull" iconography is https://manfacedbulls.wordpress.com/.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2018
  11. ma-shops

    ma-shops Well-Known Member

    That's what I like about this forum the most - always helpful people and (almost) nobody judges someone for his questions and gets support! A reason why I recommend it! My reply is not regarding the topic directly, but at this point, I just wanna leave a little "thank you" and I hope that this kinda spirit will keep going this way a looooong time, since it is very hard for newcomer to get in and if there is no support like here, this passion for collection will become rare more and more! :)
    Cheers Sarah
     
  12. TypeCoin971793

    TypeCoin971793 Just a random guy on the internet

  13. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

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