I actually got my first ancient from Littleton about 1973 and I did not like it, so I sent it back. It was a Gordian III denarius and it was not very exciting. I was not really into numismatics then and way more interested in precious metals. Twenty years later, I finally got the numismatic bug. I started with classical American type -- Barbers, Seateds, etc. -- because I thought that Greek and Roman coins were unaffordable. My teenage daughter was a page at the Michigan State Numismatic Society Show. Dropping her off and picking her up, I got to see Greeks that were almost cheap by comparison with midrange US Type -- VF Seated Quarters, high state Morgans, etc. I saw ads for ancients in Numismatic News and wrote to the dealers. I bought my first coin from the The Wolfes of Prescott, Arizona, a Miletos 1/12 silver stater. I subscribed to The Celator. When I collected, I assembled small silvers, worth a day's wages from the towns and times of famous philosophers. As a subset, I developed an interest in the town of Cyrene. I stopped collecting coins in 2000 and sold off just about all of it. I still have an Owl, of course, and a drachm of Cyrene, and a Ptolemy tet that got dropped and broken, and a few more. Basically, I jost collect knowledge. My first work appeared in The Celator in 1993 and I have been writing for them all along. I just submitted an article about the Emergency Coinage of Athens 406 BC. Another subset that I never completed was "The Five Good Emperors." I still have a denarius and a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius. The big copper goes well with a large Republican sextans Mercury/Prow that I got because Mercury/Hermes was another theme I pursued. Probably my most republican Republican and a coin I still have is a quinarius of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis. Michael
