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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 1629196, member: 39084&quot;]Although I had collected U.S. coins when I was young, I had left that hobby behind and hadn&#039;t collected coins of any type until after I retired in 2007.&nbsp; About a year after my retirement, I became interested in ancient coins -- mostly Roman, but some Greek as well.&nbsp; Having seen the great BBC TV series &quot;I Claudius&quot; when it was shown on TV, I found Roman coins to be even more fascinating than I expected, due to their historical significance.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I first started collecting ancient coins, my collection had no particular direction, and I simply bought interesting coins, mainly through a dealer who had over 30 years&#039; experience in ancient coins and antiquities.&nbsp; Fairly soon, however, I decided to concentrate on portrait coins (lifetime, if available) of the 12 Caesars, with a few additional coins that were from the Roman Imperatorial period (Cassius, Brutus, Marc Antony, Cleopatra).</p><p><br /></p><p>At first I focused on 12 Caesars denarii and aurei.&nbsp; By the middle of 2009 I had completed my collection of denarii, and by early 2010 I managed to complete my collection of aurei.&nbsp; After some thought, I decided to extend my collection to include small bronzes (asses or dupondii) and large bronzes (sestertii) of the 12 Caesars.&nbsp; Of course, bronzes are only available for 10 of the 12 Caesars, and that quest has occupied me through the current period. I still need eight bronzes to complete my collection, and I find myself wishing I had started collecting them at the same time I was accumulating the denarii and aurei, since bronzes today seem to be scarcer and a lot more expensive.</p><p><br /></p><p>Compared to most of the longer-term members here, the breadth of my collection is much more modest: when complete, I&#039;ll have a total of 48 coins -- 44 portrait coins of the 12 Caesars, plus four other coins from the Imperatorial period.&nbsp; Whether or not I&#039;ll extend my collection after that time is uncertain.&nbsp; I guess I&#039;ll just find out when I get there.</p><p><br /></p><p>For those of you who are new to collecting ancients, I thought you might find a &quot;group picture&quot; of my 12 Caesars denarii interesting:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]232466.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Julius Caesar, Octavian (Augustus), Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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