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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 8185741, member: 81887&quot;]A lot of my collection was minted in Iran (and surrounding areas of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan).&nbsp; I would like to visit Iran someday, as some others here have already done, though relations between my country (USA) and Iran have not been good since I was 7 years old, and (from what I&#039;ve looked into) although neither country (usually) outright bans US tourists from entering Iran, neither country makes it easy, either.&nbsp; Meanwhile, I&#039;ve found plenty of other interesting places to go (and I&#039;m not traveling right now anyway due to the pandemic).</p><p><br /></p><p>The one ancient city (some of whose coins I own) I&#039;ve been to is Rome.&nbsp; I was fortunate enough to visit in 2001 with my family.&nbsp; Here&#039;s my father in the Hall of Philosophers in the Capitoline Museum, looking rather wise and venerable himself:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431981[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And here&#039;s a photo I took at the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum, showing a detail of a Roman soldier leading a Parthian prisoner.&nbsp; Check out the Parthian-style hat and crazy barbarian trousers (more like leggings, really) on the prisoner:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431982[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Other cities I&#039;ve been to in Europe (Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Cologne, Salzburg, Zurich, etc.) were interesting, but none were major coin-issuers in ancient times, and some weren&#039;t founded until later.&nbsp; I did visit the modern mint in Madrid and its extensive numismatic museum (no photos allowed inside when I visited, unfortunately) and the city has many coin shops and a Sundays coin fair.&nbsp; I&#039;ve also been to Costa Rica, Peru, and Tanzania, but none of those countries issued coins during the ancient or medieval period (except for some rare issues of Muslim trading ports along the Tanzanian coast).</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve never felt threatened by humans while I was traveling.&nbsp; The only time I felt I was in danger was in Tanzania.&nbsp; Our safari group had stopped at a rest stop to use the bathrooms and stretch our legs, when we noticed a group of birds of several different species, all together on the ground, calling and hopping in an agitated fashion.&nbsp; We stood around to watch this phenomenon, and saw that the birds were harassing a snake in their midst that had been hidden under some grass.&nbsp; The snake emerged from cover:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1431987[/ATTACH]</p><p>And then the snake started moving towards me!&nbsp; I think I set the land speed record for backwards running, and while I did not show particular physical grace, I did move well out of the way.&nbsp; Fortunately, the snake was not interested in me, it was just trying to escape to a hole under a tree that happened to be near where I was standing.&nbsp; Afterwards, our tour guide identified the snake as a Puff Adder, which according to Wikipedia &quot;is responsible for causing the most snakebite fatalities in Africa.&quot;&nbsp; But other than the snake, Tanzania was beautiful, and I&#039;d be happy to return.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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