Did you some day visit the cities your coins were from?

Not at all well-traveled here. I've been to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New Orleans, but not Denver, Carson City, or West Point. (I did briefly have a Charlotte coin, and I've been there.)

I have yet to leave the US, except one brief afternoon across the Canada border as a small child. Maybe someday, probably not soon.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Hands down, my most enjoyable mint visit ever was in the Netherlands mint in Utrecht, went there on a slow day in the middle of the week and nobody else was there - so I got a grand tour from the mint director, a book on Dutch ducats etc. Utrecht is actually a wonderful little off the beaten path destination - the Nederlands Spoorwegen(train museum) is also there and has some wonderful steam locomotives, including some under fire whilst I was there. The city centre has a vibrant outdoor dining cafe setting and just liked it so so much.

 

Yes, of course, there will always be people in every country in the world that will "strongly oppose" superpowers... But I remember having seen in Shiraz or Isfahan, Iran, in 2002, a tourist bus with a conspicuous sign : "Oriental Institute - Chicago" with a little Stars and Stripes. These tourists (many were old people) seemed to have no problem visiting Iran.

For Chad, it was not @ancient coin hunter but me! Yes, of course, you are right, in this country visitors must exercise caution. In N'djamena the American embassy is a real fortress surrounded by high walls, barbed wires, concrete blocks all around, and a detachment of Marines. No other foreign embassy had this level of protection. But the ambassador himself could visit places quietly without bringing an army with him.

 

Copenhagen - I had a wanderlust and a Eurail pass so I jaunted up to the city and absolutely loved it. Got to see the Little Mermaid inspired by Hans Christian Andersen. Copenhagen is just a really clean and organized city and I enjoyed the large pedestrian areas to stroll about in. The food was good, the shopping great.



Of course you must imbibe in the local brew - Carlsberg!

 

[To be reposted.]

 

I cannot recommend a city associated with an ancient coin more strongly than ancient Ostia:



The ruins are wonderful. Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia wasn’t buried by a volcanic eruption but fell into disuse as its harbor silted up and it was ravaged and looted when it was no longer valuable to defend it. But despite this, many fabulous artifacts remain.

The merchant’s area is one of them, with each merchant illustrating its specialties via a mosaic rather than attempting a multilingual textual display. Here’s an example that illustrates what appears to be drayage service for ships that have docked:



Or how about visiting a relatively intact restaurant? Here is the cleanup/dishwashing area and its main menu on a wall (with a sign outside advertising Macrinus Donaldus, over MMMMMCCCCLLLXXVIII sold!):




No trip to Ostia would be complete without a visit to its public toilets:



A theater, forum, temple to the Roman gods, baths, shops lining the main street… there is so much more to Ostia that it’s well worth a train trip from Rome and spending at least a half-day there.

 

I agree! One of my favorite places that we visited.

 

Did the same and I am still waiting to return, maybe the fountain was distracted when I tossed my coin I should try again

Some amazing stories and descriptions here!

Even though I have been to Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Athens, Hydra, Poros, Aegina, Olympia, Delphi, Cairo, Prague, Lima, Cuzco, Mexico City, Washington DC, Portland, Boston, and many more, Vancouver, Anchorage, many cities in Germany, I never had any scary or dangerous situations.

Didn't buy any coins while traveling, now I regret it

 

This coin of 3 dengi was issued in Moldavia-Wallachia after the Russians took control of the region from the Ottoman Empire. Now this is part of Moldova, a country betwixt Romania and Ukraine. I have been there, well unofficially, because we didn't go through border controls into and out of the country. One of the curious features of post Soviet countries is that during the Soviet era roads could wind back and forth over borders of the Soviet republics with no issues. When they became sovereign nations it created difficulties.

 

@GinoLR, My sincere apologies. You were both responding to each other, and I negligently mixed the order up. I again salute you for visiting Chad. It's a country that is on extremely few travel itineraries.

When I was in Iran four years ago, I felt safe. Most times I seemed to be the only Western foreigner on the streets and obviously stuck out. People would come up to me and ask if I were from Germany. Usually, I replied, "No, I'm an American." In almost all cases, their response was "Welcome!"

 

I'm vey lucky that I live geographically in a place that has so many ancient centres within a few hours radius of my home, about 1hr 45minutes due South of Barcelona and 45 minutes South of Tarragona...I do have a lot of coins minted in places I've visited as I also lived in India few a few years hence my Kashmir collection and passion for ancient Indian coinage in general....But two coins that do stand out for me because of recent visits to the ruins are...
First my Avatar...
Spain, Kelse-Celsa. Augustus. 27 BC-14 AD. AE Unit (10.98 gm, 28mm). Velilla de Ebro (Zaragoza) mint.
Obv.: IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. F. AVGVSTVS. COS. XII, laureate head right.
Rev.: CN. DOMIT. C. POMPEI. II. VIR. C. V I. CEL, bull standing right. Abh. 811. VF.
Celsa lies about 2hours inland following the river Ebro....An amazing site!
I'm in the process of writing a thread about it..


And secondly
Iberia. Indigets. Emporia Æ AS...27.88mm/10.05grams..27-25 BC..
Obverse:Head of the goddess Pallas Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet with the visor raised and a large plume.
Reverse: Pegasos flying right, laurel crown above rump; EMPO below.
Villaronga, ACIP 1098 - R6
Ex Archer M Huntington Collection (HSA 1001.1.10234).
Lies approx 1hr or so north of Barcelona, I did write a thread on it..
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coins-from-places-visited.368723/#post-4961927

 

A lot of my collection was minted in Iran (and surrounding areas of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan). I would like to visit Iran someday, as some others here have already done, though relations between my country (USA) and Iran have not been good since I was 7 years old, and (from what I've looked into) although neither country (usually) outright bans US tourists from entering Iran, neither country makes it easy, either. Meanwhile, I've found plenty of other interesting places to go (and I'm not traveling right now anyway due to the pandemic).

The one ancient city (some of whose coins I own) I've been to is Rome. I was fortunate enough to visit in 2001 with my family. Here's my father in the Hall of Philosophers in the Capitoline Museum, looking rather wise and venerable himself:


And here's a photo I took at the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum, showing a detail of a Roman soldier leading a Parthian prisoner. Check out the Parthian-style hat and crazy barbarian trousers (more like leggings, really) on the prisoner:


Other cities I've been to in Europe (Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Cologne, Salzburg, Zurich, etc.) were interesting, but none were major coin-issuers in ancient times, and some weren't founded until later. I did visit the modern mint in Madrid and its extensive numismatic museum (no photos allowed inside when I visited, unfortunately) and the city has many coin shops and a Sundays coin fair. I've also been to Costa Rica, Peru, and Tanzania, but none of those countries issued coins during the ancient or medieval period (except for some rare issues of Muslim trading ports along the Tanzanian coast).

I've never felt threatened by humans while I was traveling. The only time I felt I was in danger was in Tanzania. Our safari group had stopped at a rest stop to use the bathrooms and stretch our legs, when we noticed a group of birds of several different species, all together on the ground, calling and hopping in an agitated fashion. We stood around to watch this phenomenon, and saw that the birds were harassing a snake in their midst that had been hidden under some grass. The snake emerged from cover:

And then the snake started moving towards me! I think I set the land speed record for backwards running, and while I did not show particular physical grace, I did move well out of the way. Fortunately, the snake was not interested in me, it was just trying to escape to a hole under a tree that happened to be near where I was standing. Afterwards, our tour guide identified the snake as a Puff Adder, which according to Wikipedia "is responsible for causing the most snakebite fatalities in Africa." But other than the snake, Tanzania was beautiful, and I'd be happy to return.

 

I have visited many ancient and medieval mints but my favorites have to be Acre and Jerusalem in Israel.

 

This is an interesting thread, which has brought on fond memories. Thank all of you for the enlightening read. As it turns out, I collect a somewhat full range of coins, including ancient (earliest 1/3 Stater, electrum Sardis mint, approximately 600 BC), Byzantine, world coins medieval to modern, and US over a period of over 60 years of collecting.

As one might expect, since I, and later my wife, children and their families enjoy traveling, we have visited several cities, from which I have minted coin examples. Starting with the US: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, New Orleans.

As for ancient and world coins: Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva (Swiss Cantons), Paris, London, Budapest, Athens, Corinth, Istanbul, Venice, Milan, Naples, Rome, Florence, Madrid.

 

For me it has been the opposite approach: visiting an ancient city (or what remains of it) makes me more interested in collecting coins from that city. I've been privileged to visit such ancient sites as Athens, Alexandria, Poseidonia, Ephesos and Rhodos, and have reasonably respectable selections from each. The one exception to this is Rome; if I started trying to get a cross-section of coins issued in that city, I'd be totally broke and wouldn't be able to look for coins from anywhere else.

 

been to san francisco, and through philly, went to hershey pa and evnvirons, ie gettysburge etc on vacation when 10

 

ATTICA, Athens. AR Tetradrachm. Circa 449-413 BC. 24mm 16.80g
O: Helmeted head of Athena right, with frontal eye
R: Owl standing right, head facing, closed tail feathers; olive sprig and crescent to left; all within incuse square.
HGC 4, 1597



Otacilia Severa (Wife of Philip I) 248-249 AD AR Antoninianus Rome Mint
O: OTACIL SEVERA AVG; Diademed draped bust right, on crescent
R: PIETAS AVGVSTAE; Pietas standing left, holding box of perfumes
RIC IV 130