The Classic Numismatic Group (CNG) new online catalog has a great selection of really nice Constantinian folles - many in the $65-$100 price range. There are many other ancient coins offered but I just checked the above late Roman coin page out. James
cool, they look so shiny and brand new If you dont mind me asking, how come roman coins on ebay are so cheap? (the uncleaned ones) I have just bought 10 roman coins for just 1 pound (2 dollars?) uncleaned so how can coins so old and rare? be so cheap thx
There were so many of them produced so the rarity dont realy come into it for the run of the mill coins. With the uncleaned you have no real idea as to what you are getting so how can they be called rare?. The realy rare Roman coins will believe me cost you quite a bit the same as any other coin. Ebay sellers use the term rare for just about anything LOL
There are loads of ancient coins, especially when it comes to late roman bronze. De Orc is right, ancient does not mean rare, it just means ancient. Then, you have ancient uncleaned, and ancient in high grade of preservation, with the finest style, a nice patina and so on, and you can jump very high in the price range. I believe it's the same betwen a G example of any american coin and a MS or a proof cameo one (though I don't know nothing about them) Q
many apologies for bring up an old thread, but my question and rambling really DO belong here I collect coins simply because i want to own them, not for value ... with that point being made... How can it be possible that there ARE so many real roman coins out there? And how can you be sure it is the real thing ? I have ordered 2 in the past 6 months because I have always wanted one. the first one I got came from a dealer, sealed in the paper container. The other is in a zip lock baggie.. one of those kind you get to " clean "... Yeah.. sometimes that makes me think scam . Anyone who wants to keep their coin isnt going to scrub their coin with soaps, but instructions say to. Anywho.. that may just be my own quirk and i will gladly own that. My rambling is this .. I would like to know that what i have is real. I highly doubt that, after 1000+ sales someone could STILL be selling fakes,but again.. that is a TON of coins. what are the common designs on a roman coin? Where is this information found? what other links can I look for to validate what I have? Is there a website, or even a book that i could read that would give me more of a history on that era and might touch on the , what appears to be mass production of coins? I have been in google for the past hour, typing in my questions, varying my search terms but still coming up a bit short. Thank you
Good place to start would be below. http://dougsmith.ancients.info/ http://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp http://www.wildwinds.com/
No problem. Just know there was millions of roman coins minted through the empires years and many were buried & are found from metal detecting and so forth so they are plentiful and are available in all price points. Even that one you mentioned you can "clean" can be done so, but most likely its a very common roman coin.
If you can, post them here. Theres allot of experts here. Wayne g Sayles "ancient coin collecting" series are pretty good (imo) beginner books. If your gonna buy more, you might wana check out vcoins.com.
I can post photos. Absolutely. I just rinsed it, see details already. I should pause, photograph, then do some more cleaning
I have read most of the first few pages of the link you sent from dougsmith.. and now I understand why and where they come from. NOW.. it makes sense seeing all these old coins for sale. And if they were made that long , they should be super common like american pennies are..
Doug himself posts on here & is always helpful, even to the seasoned ancient collectors on this board. They are common but like american pennies, there is some that are VERY hard to acquire and there is a vast amount of romans to collect. Alot start with the Severan dynasty since they have good silver as well as can be found at very reasonable prices. Constantine era is the most common you will find in "unsearched" lots. They are also the cheapest, some as little as $5-$20.
You might also want to visit the Vcoins website, where reliable dealers sell their stuff, to make an idea of what is available on the market, and at what price : http://www.vcoins.com/ Q
