Ancients: My Favorite Ancients

1. an archaic silver with punch mark reverse
2. a 5th century BC silver with two sides
3. a Classical style high art silver
4. a Greek bronze
5. something of Alexander the Great
6. a Hellenistic coin
7. a Roman Republican
8. one coin of any of the earlier Roman emperors
9. a late Roman
10. a Byzantine

Each of these could be filled by at least a thousand different coins. For balance, it would be nice if one of the unspecified numbers were gold and the others varied in size (for example: if #1 is tiny, #2 should be a tetradrachm).



To keep it to ten, I had to make the early Roman (#7) a Provincial and the first (#1) Persian. I would have preferred to have used a separate Roman Imperial and something completely non-Western to show that ancients are not all Greek and Roman but that would have required 12 coins. I feel a little bad using that Alexander tetradrachm of the common type rather than something less usual for #5 but the test cut makes it a coin none here would select. The point is that there is no 'top ten' that represents the entire span of ancient coinage. Given 100, something of interest would get slighted. Given 100, I would have included YOC's suggested commemorative which could have been my #9.

 

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=> I agree with YOC's pick ...

Oh, and I definitely agree with Doug's recommendations!! (I actually posted my response before I read Doug's response on the second page ... his logic is always very sound!!)

Ummm, but I also have a few recommendations ... my few examples were a bit more specific than Doug's generic strategy (I tossed-in a few coins that I figure are kinda classics)

Greek must-haves => an example of at least one of the following: an Attic Owl, an Istrus Moesia and/or a Corinthian Athena-Pegasus Stater (or Akarnanian in my case)

Roman must-haves => A sweet Fallen Horseman and a Constantinopolis Commemorative

 

hmm...i don't know. but if i had to pick 10 0f my coins and do an "ancient coins sampler" for someone not familiar with ancients, here's some i could use..
(i'm cutting off about 900 ad to simplify)

old school greek..

1.

greek disffusion..

2. ptolemy size contrast with old school coin..





3. muli-lingual ind0-greek with cool shape..






byzantine...

4. nice big justinian





5. got to have a cup!







roman...

6. republican..







7. imperial (first half)...






8. imperial (2nd half)





9. a provincial






10. the chinese




the rodney dangerfields of ancients..

 

While I agree that many of the coins mentioned are excellent representatives of their genre, the problem is that there are more than ten major areas of ancient coins that need to be represented so selecting more than one coin from the same group will require leaving out another altogether. I wanted a nice big Roman sestertius but that would have required leaving out my provincial. I wanted a Justinian follis like chrysmat71's #4 but that would have cost me the spot I used for the cup gold. Perhaps we could make a good shot at 25 or 50 suggested specific coins but ten is just too hard.

 

yeah..very hard. even making 10 out of the few coins that i own was a pain. i didn't put in a parthian (had greek reverse legend, so though i could say that was covered)...but what about a good ol' sasanian fire altar? i really wanted to cram that in. really wanted to wedge in one of my islamic coins also.

it would be easier if the date was moved back to exclude the byzantine's and other early "medieval" coins. i don't really subscribe to the fall of the western roman empire as the hard date for the end of ancient coins...but it sure would make a top 10 list easier!

but it sure would miss out on some cool coins.... any top ten list will i suppose.

 

Here one that would be in the top

 

I'm very partial to Greeks myself...and I know it's hard to come up with a top ten of ancients in general, so how about a top ten list of Greeks. Here's mine: (many still on my wish list)
1) Athens owl tetradrachm
2) Aegina turtle stater
3) Akragas eagle/crab bronze
4) Ephesus bee/stag tetradrachm
5) Gela man-bull didrachm
6) Syracuse octopus bronze
7) Istros Gemini twins/sea eagle drachm
8) Tarentum Tara in dolphin/horseback warrior nomos
9) Alexander the Great silver
10) any Seleukids coin
I know many of you guys would include the Corinth Athena/Pegasus stater but for no known reason, I have no desire to acquire this coin.
I could list more but this is my personal top ten

 

While I certainly agree with the ten as fine choices, I can not dismiss the Corinth (but would insist on one of fine style since many are not). For that matter I probably could name as many others that would be on my wish list if I had the money to seek them. Leading this might be the Posidonia and Sybaris staters with incuse reverses, the Naxos satyr stater and the Akragas silver with two feasting eagles in whatever size I could afford. Similarly, we could list ten that include not a single Greek or Roman, ten big ones, ten tiny, ten that include all twelve Caesars, ten Romans that include not a single man known to Suetonius and even ten really nice coins that could be purchased for under $50 apiece. Ten golds, ten not made of gold, silver or bronze, ten casts..... enough tens that our heads hurt thinking of them all. That is why some of us like ancients. There is no shame in not having a complete set.

 

I agree...the goal of having a complete set is what takes the enjoyment out of collecting for me, which is why i stay away from US coin collecting. You get so far and realize it is just not feasable due to financial constraints or rarity to complete a set and it ruins the fun of coin collecting. Us ancient collectors dont have this problem.