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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3931887, member: 85693&quot;]Interesting thread, with interesting stories.&nbsp; I think it was 1977 when the BBC version of Robert Grave&#039;s <i>I, Claudius</i> broadcast on TV.&nbsp; I was in 7th grade and something about ancient Rome really got to me.&nbsp; It is inexplicable.&nbsp; <i>Star Wars</i> hit me at the same time, but it was Rome that really stuck.&nbsp; I took Latin in high school, and my teacher lent me Suetonius - the very same edition David Atherton shows in his post above.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I bought my first ancient 10 years later from a local dealer - the same dealer I still visit.&nbsp; A denarius of Septimius Severus <i>MARS PATER</i>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1036256[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Mostly I collected Roman Republic denarii - but before the Internet, prices were high, catalogues were all through the mail, so I only bought a couple a year.&nbsp; My local library has Crawford on the shelf, so I was pretty comfortable with researching my purchases.&nbsp; Imperial and Greek stuff was not much fun, however - the books didn&#039;t have enough illustrations, and I was constantly confused.&nbsp; I remember spending hours with Mueller unsuccessfully trying to figure out an Alexander III drachm (which I attributed via the Internet in about 5 minutes, years later). </p><p><br /></p><p>I was a very intermittent collector of ancients until 2013 when I became obsessed with Byzantines (not sure how that happened).&nbsp; My first trip to Rome in 2017 sent me around the bend - I joined CT about that time.&nbsp; I also found that with patience, some pretty good deals could be had on eBay.&nbsp; Stuff I had no interest in - Provincials, little bitty Greek AEs and about everything else - started turning me on.&nbsp; Coin Talk has really fanned the flames - the expertise, the great member coins, the advice, the camaraderie make the whole collecting experience much better.&nbsp; So thank y&#039;all![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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