 Recommend a collection :)

JDcompy · Jan 14, 2024

nerosmyfavorite68 said: ↑

Welcome to the Ancients side! It's actually cheaper than collecting Americans, generally speaking.

It's very difficult to find true uncleaneds nowadays. Dirtyoldcoins only has a few categories which could be considered actually uncleaned. Around 2004, they really were uncleaned.

I'd recommend getting the final product from a dealer, but if uncleaned is what you want, then there are various how-to videos on youtube (I'd recommend the gentler methods). I was always dreadful at cleaning coins, so I'm not really good at more specific tips about that.

Knowing the history helps. I'd recommend listening to the Totalus Rankium podcasts. They rate all the Roman and Byzantine emperors. Justinian II won the distinction of most interesting Roman emperor, by the way. Podcasts are how I got back into collecting Byzantines. There are more scholarly podcasts out there but Totalus gives a pretty good overview of the reign in a fun way.

There are many good dealers out there. I got really great service from Victor Clark, by the way. I really like Savoca, David Connors, Tom Vossen, Aegean Numismatics, Forum, and others. Honorable mentions would be Incitatus Coins and Marc Breitsprecher. All of the above are quite nice and have lots of budget coins. I love the selection at London Ancient Coins and most of their transactions are problem-free, but I had a recent problem with less than stellar packaging and their customer service has never been that great.

Once you find your interest, buy the book. Pdf copies are available from Spink of most of David Sear's Roman Coins and their Values volumes. David Van Meter's book is also a good overview, available for around $35 if Forum still has it. If someone can dig up the link to the free version of ERIC, there's also that.

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/sitelinks.html

Valentinian has a nice site for beginners. It probably has a link to Doug Smith's old pages (which are very helpful) in there as well. Doug Smith's pages are hosted on Forum's site, unless something's changed.

Oh yeah, on youtube there's also Classical Numismatics. I'd recommend that channel. There's also Aaron Berk's podcasts. Half the podcast is generally an educational segment. His are also on youtube.
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Beyond helpful - thank you!!

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JDcompy · Jan 14, 2024

svessien said: ↑

As for "uncleaned" coins, I have long found that the best uncleaned coins are those that you buy at cheap auctions like savoca, concordia, bucefalus, etc. If you look at the online catalogs, you will probably find coins that you want to spend time cleaning, and that you decide are possible to clean and get a decent result from. Although more expensive than the typical 4th century "dirty dozen", you will likely get more value for your money too. But one has to buy at least a couple of coins to make it worth the shipping cost. Just before Christmas, I bought 5 bronze coins from Sicily for 55 euros. They all need cleaning, but at least 4 of them will come out good.

As for finding the "right" path with the collecting, my experience is that it takes time. I have allowed myself to shift between different areas of collecting the 20 years I've been at it. That has most of all been interesting and a learning experience. If I had been more goal oriented, my collection of one silver coin per Roman emperor would probably have been done by now. But what would have been the fun in being "done" with a collection? I think this is perhaps where ancient coin collectors differ from modern "set" collectors. We don't have any Dansco albums that tell us when we're done, so we just keep collecting and collecting

If you find Roman coins interesting, I think the 3rd century is a good place to start, as there are many coins in great condition availible for a decent price from that time. When you get used to grading and evaluating ancients from pictures, you can move on to more expensive eras, like the 1st and 2nd century AD. Roman Republican coins from the last century BC is also a great area with many lovely and interesting designs. I have concluded that I prefer coins with no head of state on them, after having collected heads of state for 20 years.
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Thank you for all the tips and ideas!!! Amazing!

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 Recommend a collection :)

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