Ancient Type Set

Is there such a thing as an ancient type set?
I'm doing my research to possibly dig somewhere else besides 20th century coinage.
Regarding how many countries and there methods of currency, is it feasible for any combination of a type set? My budget is 50$ a month,but Im willing to save for larger purchases. Thank you in advance.
PS you ancient folks (pun intended) are alot more helpful then other areas so thank you for that.

 

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Yes it is possible. Is there a period of history you are interested in? You could easily spend $50 or $50000 a month, so narrowing down your interests is important.

 

Persian or other middle eastern empires.

 

I'm really only familiar with coinage of the region during the Persian/Greek and early Roman periods. An example being a Persian Siglos similar to this one.

They were made by several different kings of the Achaemenid Empire. A "set" of each could be had, though some early ones will cost several hundred if not thousands. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=siglos will show many of the types needed to make a more or less complete collection of these. There are other interesting types that also exist from Persian occupations.

 

Ill look into it, thx for the info

 

Sassanians are really cool! Mine aren't in the best of shape. However, I got both Khusro I&II for about $50 combined They have some of if not my favorite designs of all middle eastern ancients.

 

I do have to be honest that coins like that are not my "thing"(refering to the odd shape) I do prefer coins that are moderatley circular. I do understand that ancient coins are not perfect circles, but a coin that is that oddly shaped does not apeal to me. I do appreciate the help tho!

 

Are you aware why ancients had such large open spaces on the edges?

 

Most don't. Just the 2 very specific ones I've posted. Most Roman coins have no open space on the edges as they are over flowing...or flowing over with the emperor's names, titles accomplishments etc..

 

My mistake, I assumed many coins were like that

 

You said you wanted middle eastern (not my forte, but an area I dabble). I would recommend starting in Greek or Roman if you want a fun and easy starting point into the MASSIVE world of ancient coin.

 

If you're interested in ancient (pre-Islamic) Persia, there are three main time periods to consider. First is the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BC), the classical Persian Empire. Their main coinage was the silver siglos, which lacked inscriptions, had a design on only one side, and typically looked like this:

Then comes the Parthian Empire (247 BC- 224 AD), my personal favorite as you can guess from my chosen name and avatar. The Parthians fought many wars with the Roman Empire, and their history is fascinating. Their silver drachms typically feature a seated archer on the reverse:

Finally, the Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD) issued thin, wide silver drachms. The reverse almost always shows a Zoroastrian fire-altar:

There are expensive rarities in all these series, but you can get a couple of nice representative coins of each empire for under $100 per coin. Good luck, and let me know if you want more advice!

 

I have been admiring and collecting Sasanians since 16 yo. Parthians are like Roman coins: you can easily collect all the kings on the same type of drachms before discovering there's a lot more: impressive large tetradrachms and a really fascinating series of bronze coins.
Achaemenids to me are a bit boring, ugly drops of silver or gold with a king figure running or shooting - that's all. But I'm sure there's more that I haven't seen so far.

Here's my lone Achaemenid siglos. Now if you are into sports...

 

We have had many threads with advice for beginners. Here is a site with lots of ideas (but, mostly Roman):
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/

and here is a page with themes, some of which are eastern:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/themes.html

 

Achaemenid Persia has more to give than just the oblong sigloi that don't appeal to you. There are, for example, a large range of bronze issues of various satraps. They tend to be roundish and relatively inexpensive. Here are a couple:

^This one was issued by Spithridates, the satrap of Lydia and Ionia just before and during Alexander's conquest. He almost killed Alexander personally, but was prevented by Alexander's friend Kleitos who cut off Spithridates' arm just in time!


^This was issued by another Persian satrap (possibly Memnon) around the same time. You can see my speculation about what the reverse represents in this thread, along with another really neat bronze from the period.

Silver tends to be more expensive, but here's one that didn't break the bank:

It was issued by Mazaios, satrap of Cilicia. He was part of the army that faced Alexander at Gaugamela, but withdrew, and was rewarded by Alexander with the satrapy of Babylon, the first Persian to receive such a favour. The obverse shows the Persian god Baal, and the design was the basis for Alexander's famous tetradrachms showing Zeus. The reverse of the lion attacking a bull is a famous Persian motif.

In short... don't dismiss the Achaemenid period as a possible collecting area too quickly. In particular, a type set of the small bronzes would be an awesome place to start, and could keep you occupied for quite a while.

 

Alrighty

 

A reasonably priced "type" set (which is a term really not used in Ancients) would be Kings of Makedon Bronze coins:

(...And I have beau coup more...)

Makedon AE 20 Kassander 319-297 BC Herakles Horse prancing S 6754 var SNG Cop 1142


Makedon AE 15mm Demetrios I Poliorketes 294-288 BCE Zeus Athena


Makedon AE 19 6-1g Philip II 359-336 BCE Left Face and Man on Horse r


Makedon Alexander III AE 17mm 6.7g Hd Herakles R lionskin AΛEΞANΔΡOY club bow-case thunderbolt M


Makedon Philip II AE 18 Apollo - Youth Horseback spear hd below 359-356 BCE RIGHT-RIGHT 18mm 6.2g SNG ANS 850-1


MAKEDON Philip III Arrhidaios 323-317 BCE Æ 1-2 Unit 17mm 4.2g Miletos mint Makedonwn shield Gorgoneion - Helmet bipennis K Price 2064


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 16 4-1g Salamis-Cyprus mint Herakles club bow quiver SA Price 3143


Makedon Perseus 178-168 BC AE 23 Poseidon Club


Makedon Amyntas II 395-393 BCE Æ12 2.0g Aigai or Pella mint Hd Pan - Forepart wolf chewing bone SNG Alpha Bank 179-80 Very Rare


Makedon Kassander 316-297 BCE AE15 Herakles Lion reclining SNG Cop 1140

 

I would say a person could assemble a reasonably comprehensive set of ancient coins in only about a hundred coins. That would not get you a coin of every ruler or every city but it would allow five to twenty each from six or eight major categories which would offend specialists in each of those categories about equally. Exactly how to allocate the hundred coins would differ greatly between each of us and would expose not only our prejudices but things about which we were wholly ignorant. It might be a fun exercise but we would first have to define terms like coins and ancient. You could cut back a bit on count and cost by declaring no gold or nothing too modern to be strictly ancient. In any event you will not be getting all twelve of the 12 Caesars or each pre-coinage unround experiment unless you declare the common attitude that the only thing worth collecting is what you collect and not what the rest of us do.

My 100:
20 Greek
20 Roman
15 Provincial / Quasi-Independent regions
5 Other Western
5 Barbarous
5 Byzantine
10 Near East (West of India)
5 Central Asian/Indian
10 Far East (East of India)
5 Things that just did not fit in the above

No one will agree with all of those. If you saw how I broke each of those down further, you would see even more disagreements.

 

I'm not exactly sure what the OP is asking, and I'm certainly no expert on ancient coins. But when I think of "Type Set", it has nothing to do with cities or rulers. It has more to do with acquiring 1 example of each "Type" of coin.

For instance, an Imperial Roman type set would include 1x Aureus, 1x Solidus, 1x Denarius, 1x Sestertius, 1x As, etc, etc, etc. If the set was more comprehensive, then it would include examples of the same type that went through significant changes, like composition for instance. Everything else about the coin is irrelevant, other than the fact that it is representative of the "Type".

 

What an interesting discussion! It seems that "type set" is as difficult to define as any other ancient "set". That makes it easier, in a way-- just define the set however you wish

This has been discussed on FAC and some of you might find the "denominations" page interesting. Until you scroll past the initial section for Roman Imperial, you might mistakenly think it is easily doable .

Here's that page:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Denomination

Be sure to scroll all the way down. Imagine trying to assemble a Greek denomination type set-- tough when we don't even really know how to define some of the denominations. Could be fun though, definitely a lifelong task.

Also on that same page there are links to discussion about what constitutes a type set, or rather various niche type sets, in ancient coin collecting. The discussion was just for Roman coins.

Roman Type Set Discussion
Roman Gold Type Set
Roman Silver Type Set
Roman Bronze Type Set
Roman Other Type Set (Including Provincial)

(I didn't find any such discussions for Greek coins)