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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Voulgaroktonou, post: 2911856, member: 84047&quot;]What a nice suggestion to introduce ourselves! In a lifetime spent studying ancient coins, the greatest benefit it has given me is the lifelong group of dear friends whom I would never have met, had not our paths crossed through our shared coin interest. One I count very dear is my friend Warren, who is a regular contributor to CT. If I never looked at another coin, my friends would remain. And I look forwarding to getting to know many of you better as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>Like my Coin Talk image, or avatar, as I suppose it is called, my name is Mike. 55 years ago when I was a child, I fell in love with ancient Greece and Rome, and began collecting ancients. For a few years I did what I could to assemble a portrait gallery of Roman emperors, and occasionally add the attractive Greek coin that struck my fancy. 4 years of high school Latin turned into a college major in Classical Studies – Latin, ancient Greek, and ancient history. Then followed graduate studies in Classics at the University of Cincinnati, where I concentrated in late Latin literature, studying authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, Prudentius, and Ausonius, as well as Christian writers Lactantius and in Greek, Eusebius. My professional concentration on late antique literature and history caused my coin interest to move to the late Empire and to its natural continuation, Byzantine. What led to my love of Byzantine coinage was the fact that Byzantium WAS the Roman Empire, and the contemporary Greek nation evolved from that (along with a healthy influx of Slavic DNA in the late antique period). This was made crystal clear to me by a lecture I once attended. The speaker was a noted Greek scholar of Byzantine history. He described the incident that led to his devoting his life to Byzantine studies. When he was a young child, the island he lived on was liberated by the Greek navy from the Turks. As the Greek marines were dismounting from their boats and coming ashore, he like hundreds of other Greeks were shouting out “Οι Έλληνες, οι Έλληνες”! (the Greeks, the Greeks!). A marine approached him and replied “Δεν είμαστε Έλληνες, είμαστε Ρωμαιοί”. (we are not Greeks, we are Romans”. I guess his story hooked me, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because I had a family, I didn&#039;t want to pursue a teaching academic career involving a host of short term positions in the hopes of finding eventual tenure, so as a job opened in our Classics Library, which is one of the world&#039;s premier collections of books on all areas of Classical antiquity, as well as in Byzantium, and modern Greece, I took it, and 40 years on, I am still here.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the early 1980s I was asked to become curator to the private collection of Byzantine coins of a gentleman whose surname is found on products in every grocery store in the country. He had begun his collection buying Byzantine gold in the early 1950s. In the 30 years of our association, we moved into acquiring Byzantine silver and bronze, especially concentrating on ceremonial silver and bronze of the highest grade. It was a thrill for a small town boy like me to be able to participate in international auctions of the most wonderful material. But the even richer reward was the friendship and love I came to feel for a man that I cared as much about as a second father. My friend died several years ago and “our” - as he used to call it, collection went to Dumbarton Oaks, where it will be used as a teaching aid for years to come. That 30 years was the most meaningful time of my life, passed only by the blessings of my wonderful wife, our children, grandchildren, 3 dogs and a horse.</p><p><br /></p><p>Today, in the twilight of my life, my coin interests center on Byzantine silver, especially the 7th century hexagrams and for truly perverse reasons, I find the Palaeologid stavrata strangely beautiful and haunting, and I acquire them whenever I can find well struck specimens.</p><p><br /></p><p>My other hobbies include trying real hard to not fall off our horse, reading 15th century English literature (Chaucer, and for prose, the Paston Letters), the Bible in modern Greek – it is amazing how much modern Demotic Greek approximates Koine Greek, target shooting (but not hunting), and last but by no means least, sleeping, a special interest to which I should like to devote more time.</p><p><br /></p><p>My wife also has a degree in Classical Studies, although she questions my love for Byzantine coins. But she tolerates them. And me. Yes, I am blessed.</p><p><br /></p><p>I love a lot of my coins, but there are two that have a special place in my heart. Photos are attached: Sear 25A and Sear 28A, a very rare type with enthroned Constantinopolis on the reverse. A companion piece, the follis, came up in Triton XIX, lot 688. But when I saw where the bidding was going, I decided that Meat Loaf&#039;s song “Two out of three ain&#039;t bad” made a lot of sense.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some CTalkers have added very nice photos of themselves, so I cautiously venture one of mine. But I hasten to avoid possible offense to any anti gun members, by saying I am only doing my best impersonation of Patrick Swayze in his movie “Red Dawn”, while my horse is tolerating my goofiness!</p><p>[ATTACH=full]703210[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]703211[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]703212[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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