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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Black Friar, post: 6654676, member: 76221&quot;]Hi Gam,</p><p><br /></p><p>To answer your question...&quot;Does Anyone collect Byzantine Coins&quot; ? Yes indeed as you can see by the response.&nbsp; In fact they are my drug of choice. The first time I saw one I was hooked to coin afraid (it&#039;s ok to groan).</p><p><br /></p><p>A coin shop I hung around was speciallizing in ancients.&nbsp; One of our local dealers was Tom Cederland and just starting out doing shows and such and needed money. He brought in a group of ten coins that Ken (not his real name) purchased.&nbsp; He new I was looking for something to collect as I was tired of US stuff as I finished my US type set and other collections such as Walkers.</p><p><br /></p><p>I walked in and he said he thought I should look at the group which were all Carthage mint.&nbsp; I had no idea a the time that Carthage was a tough group to collect, there just wasn&#039;t a lot around. So, I said &quot;yes please&quot; and purchased the lot for $300.&nbsp; That was in 1983. None of them were folles. It took me forever to attribute them properly.</p><p><br /></p><p>In due course there was only one book at the time that beginning collector could afford, David Sears <i>Byzantine Coins and their Values, </i>the edition before the current First Edition, upgraded. I started hunting for other books but most of the good ones such as DOC was very expensive.&nbsp; I of course purchased David&#039;s book. I also subscribed to dealer lists such as Harlan Berks buy or bid offerings.&nbsp; Anytime I saw a new dealers auction catalogues I requested them and built my library with them.&nbsp; Eventually I did get the DOC (Dunbarton Oaks of nine volumes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Today of course is a collectors dream with the internet availability a fantastic tool.</p><p>We are still a very small but committed group.&nbsp; It sook me several years before I found another one, and not local.&nbsp; I&#039;m still able to cherry pic as I know more about them than most dealers. </p><p><br /></p><p>The advantage I had was the fact that dealers junk boxes in the 80&#039;s were a Byzantine collectors wild west.&nbsp; They had no time to deal with such ugly coins which I was very happy to pay a few bucks for.&nbsp; By the way, I still own nine of the ten coins, I sold one by mistake. It is interesting to me that I only collect bronzes though I do have five or six gold items.&nbsp; Good silver is now getting expensive.&nbsp; The most affordable are the issues of Heraclius and Constans II, and John III.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a challenging field due to the longevity of the Byzantine/Romaion period.&nbsp; So many choices and coins, so little time.&nbsp; So my advice is find a niche that interests you whether bronzes, silver, or gold. Look at a lot of dealer sites, and local as well as national gatherings which because of the virus are non existent for now.&nbsp; There are many ways to satisfy your jones, taste and see.&nbsp; This is my hobby, I do it for fun.&nbsp; If you haven&#039;t done it yet Vcoins will keep you busy.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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