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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ambr0zie, post: 7932773, member: 80952&quot;]No, it&#039;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)</p><p><br /></p><p>On the 4th of October 2020 I participated in my first ancient coins auction and won 3 lots.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have been a modern coins and banknotes collector in my childhood (of course, at a very amateur level, more like a child&#039;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.</p><p>Something had to be done (oh no, I couldn&#039;t just save the money, no no).</p><p>I had an attempt to read about medieval coins a few years ago but I am just not into them.</p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>But my knowledge was almost zero. And I though a denarius in a nice condition (near VF for example) can&#039;t be less than 200$. Don&#039;t ask why.</p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;t believe I could get one for less than an arm and a leg.</p><p>(<i>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)</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Found an auction live on 4th of October 2020, saw some coins that made me curious and had a go.</p><p><br /></p><p>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)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1371858[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1371859[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1371860[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1371861[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>Took me 2 days but it was lots of fun.</p><p><br /></p><p>So since then I started studying, learning new things almost daily, hunting auctions, <i>paying a lot,</i> deciding what I like and what I want to buy more.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Also added coins from cultures I knew next to nothing about.</p><p><br /></p><p>So happy anniversary to me!</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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