No, it's not my birthday and as far as I know, 4th of October is not an important day in ancient history (I enjoy those threads) On the 4th of October 2020 I participated in my first ancient coins auction and won 3 lots. I have been a modern coins and banknotes collector in my childhood (of course, at a very amateur level, more like a child's game, but I still cherish the coins and notes I have from those times). Started more seriously in 2013 and in 2019-2020 I have managed to complete my goals in modern numismatics so I kinda stopped. Something had to be done (oh no, I couldn't just save the money, no no). I had an attempt to read about medieval coins a few years ago but I am just not into them. In my albums there were 19 ancient coins, bough from numismatic shows during the years. Most of them 4th century in horrible condition, but I also had a Gallienus - decent, a Quintillus (had no idea this is not common) and a Philip II AE from Macedonia. But my knowledge was almost zero. And I though a denarius in a nice condition (near VF for example) can't be less than 200$. Don't ask why. I was also intrigued reading forums and various sites and could not understand how people can recognize coins where I was seeing no clear details. So I decided I had to do it, since I was always fond of Roman Empire history (knew almost nothing about other cultures). Having a genuine, nice looking, silver ancient coin was still a dream and I didn't believe I could get one for less than an arm and a leg. (being a collector for years made me aware that a RARITY in excellent condition would cost a few arms and legs, but those were not my goals) Found an auction live on 4th of October 2020, saw some coins that made me curious and had a go. Won these 3 lots and these 46 coins are the first ones in my first album (I keep them in the order I bought them) What I find quite interesting, even after a year is that the prices were extremely low. I can only assume there were other auctions in the same time or something similar. What I paid for these 3 lots was below market value then and now. The bronze lot has interesting coins, not FDC but most of them in better condition than one would have expected. I was disappointed in the following weeks/months seeing other hammer prices but that was it. Anyway I will always remember the pleasure when these coins arrived and how I was studying them trying to identify, as the coins were not attributed and the only one I recognized was Hadrian. Took me 2 days but it was lots of fun. So since then I started studying, learning new things almost daily, hunting auctions, paying a lot, deciding what I like and what I want to buy more. 99% of what I know is from CT. Received help when I was stuck on identifying a coin, read hundreds of interesting threads, found out about websites that are mandatory for this hobby and, last but not least, virtually met nice people. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. My collection has now 257 ancient coins. Including the old ones I had before starting this hobby. I added 77 silver Roman Empire and Roman republic coins, something that would have seemed a joke last year. Also added coins from cultures I knew next to nothing about. So happy anniversary to me! I will not quit this hobby, but I will probably buy less, as I noticed that buying 15 coins from an auction is not that exciting as it was in the first months, even if I still love the thrill when winning a coin I want. Not to mention the financial aspects. I would like to hear (read) about how other collectors started this hobby, how was the first purchase and how was your collection after 1 year.
A very Happy Anniversary! I'm glad you decided to collect ancient coins. You're a great contributor to this forum, and I think it's cool that you live in Dacia. I started actively collecting ancient coins almost exactly four years ago, at a time when I had previously bought about half a dozen over a 30-year period when I primarily collected British coins and historical medals. My ancient collection now totals 291 coins, so it's pretty much the same size as yours at this point.
So glad to have your friendship and coin taste here. And do I have a VF denarius for you! On sale for $195 I started out with my dad giving me some of his coins to draw me into the hobby. He knew I loved ancient history and had shown interest in his coins. I was pretty well hooked after that.
Happy anniversary! I'm in a similar boat to you, having started collecting ancient coins last November. My collection is at 114 coins (though none from lots), so you've definitely been more prolific.
Happy anniversary! I also started with modern coins (still have my state quarters album in my drawer), followed by error coins, banknotes, 1800s Queen Victoria coins, and then moved into ancients maybe around 2 to 2-1/2 years ago. Fun journey since. I have a small collection of around 120 ancient coins.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ambr0zie ! Great groups of coins and interesting post. Like many others here on the Forum, I started off with a few and it took off from there. I’m glad to have these old posters to illustrate how the Judaean collection grew. My other ancient collections of Nabataeans, Seleucids etc. grew along similar lines.
