What kind of ancient coins collector are you?

Suetonian: a single tray with 12 cases for each of Suetonius’ 12 Caesars, upgrading to the death

Biographic: coins of a single emperor and his relatives if any. I know a guy who collects only Gordian III

Geographic: all coins from a kingdom, or a province, or a city

Historical: all coins minted in a definite period, for ex. Alexander the Great’s lifetime, or the Second Punic War

Thematic: for example, all kinds of ancient coins showing a ship or part of a ship

Monometallic: nothing but gold, for example

Monomaniac: all possible specimens of a single coin, even from the same pair of dies, for example Domitian’s rhinoceros walking left quadrantes

Conan the Barbarian: all possible kinds of ancient imitations, the cruder the better

Chromatic: only coins with the same patina, or of all possible nuances of a colour

Psychedelic: all possible kinds of flan shapes, oval, square, triangular, tentacular, the weirdest the better

Speculative: coins chosen for their future valuation prospects

Aesthetical: coins chosen just because they look beautiful

Exclusive: nothing but unique unpublished coins

Honey I Shrunk My Collection: nothing but coins less than 10 mm in diameter

Literal: for ex. all coins beginning with an S (Sestertius, Semis, Septimius Severus, Siglos, Salonina, Solidus, Saturn, etc.)

Carceral: all coins in slabs with number and barcode

Avaricious: all coins acquired for less than $ 20 each

Gargantuesque: all possible ancient coins

Zen: only archaic uniface staters with no legend

Perfectionist: nothing but mint-state uncirculated specimens, virginity-tested

Taliban: only emperors with beards, the longer the better

Goofy: nothing but tourist fakes

Nihilist: coins so worn that nothing is visible any more

 

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Yes.

 

I like the larger coins like Dupondius, a big portrait and a solid coin you could skip across the lake

 

Pretty much all those things.

 

Aesthetical: coins chosen just because they are attractive.

 

Autograph collector: I am mainly looking for signed Greek coins, or those that can be attributed to a known celator.

This means I don't buy very many coins for my main collection each year. Lol.

 

Precisely this.

 

Mostly geographic since I collect Imperial Roman and British, although that is medieval.

 

The coin pictured below isn't ancient, however, I think it fits perfectly in Gino's category of Psychedelic .


This bizarre looking coin was auctioned yesterday by Great Collections for $1,080.00 ! The coin weighs 16.06 oz. . At the current silver price this coin would melt at $369.00 . Palau is a group of 340 islands (180 square miles) in Micronesia. I don't know the significance of this coin, but many of the early inhabitants of Micronesia were head hunters, so maybe this coin is honoring an old tradition ?

 

I avoid four of those but am mostly a Yes! One missing from the list is "Technical". I collect coins that show some technical interest relating to how the coins were produced. That includes but is not limited to fabric, errors, overstrikes, countermarks, weight standards and probably a dozen things I have forgotten or not yet discovered.

 

I forgot many kinds of collections, for ex. Feminist Separatist: only goddesses and empresses.

 

I have an eclectic collection, but I'm going with Aesthetical because I don't care too much how rare a coin is because the eye appeal has to be there. If I don't find the coin attractive, I could care less. This also goes with my U.S., world and exonumia collections.

 

Historical. For now, I really only pay attention to coins minted during the time of Philip II, Alexander III, and the succeeding Diadochi. I do have some other coins from when I aimlessly started collecting, but that's my focus.

Maybe at some point I'll be able to branch off, with the main limitation being finances, but given the coins I still intend to acquire for the above collection, that's a ways away.

 

I am probably a combination between avaricious and aesthetical.
In the near future I might become a new type of collector, 'having 250+ coins, being happy with them and wondering if buying other coins has any sense, for financial and personal reasons'

 

24. Financially Unable But Still Love Seeing And Reading About Ancient Coins
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Yes, that's my category...woohoo! :0)

 

Aesthetics + Historicity > a constant. Beautiful and historical are best, but I’ll be attracted to a coin which is historic but not beautiful, or beautiful but not historically significant. And almost all my coins are post Constantine the Great.

 

Geo—David Hendin—Ya’akov Meshorer—centric.





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Ditto