I took this quote from another thread, I did not want to hijack the thread but it was an interesting thought on the future of Ancient Coins. @Gallienus, May also pay to wait until after the vaccine's out and the gold rush goes away. I am no longer sure that will be the case, I have a feeling that the quarantine has created a whole new group of collectors. I think we will see a bump in prices but I agree we will see a dip in the ridiculous high's. Especially when these new collectors become more educated and more focused with their collections. Regardless like you I have been very careful with my bids not to overpay but what is the future goin to bring for this hobby? I hope the new collectors find their way to this board.
I'm always interested in threads trying to predict the future of coin collecting and have followed many threads on this site for that. I can provide links to them on here {if desired later}. My comment was based on the price of gold and I was going to guess that after the vaccine's out & economy recovers the price of gold may drop. More common Honorius solidii may follow this but it may not affect the price of rarer Roman coins which have been on a strong positive streak: at least the rarer gold. Strangely enough, of the 2 coins I bought this year, one was gold and I'm in the process of bidding on another gold one! Normally my favorite metal is bronze but my last bidding attempt there lost out. I noticed that you apparently collect Byzantine from your collection at Forum Ancient coins. This is a facinating area historically and one in which I've considered adding more pieces. Unfortunately I'm already spread out into more areas than I can afford so I have to show restraint. As I've posted here before I also use my Ancients Collection to teach 6th graders about Ancient History as Shown by Coins at a local high school. I don't know how it'll work due to quarantine but this will be my 6th year doing this. --- They {&I} really seem to enjoy it and hopefully they learn something. Of course I don't get paid for this as it's a volunteer activity.
I took the quote out of context , I did to mean misrepresent your statement, I misunderstood and I apologize. My primary collection is bronze but I have been adding coins to the collection to finish the century, So far I have completed John II and Isaac II, so my collections on Forum are not up to date. I have started new collection of the Byzantine tremissis and recently coinage from the Seljuqs of Rum. Those new collections are a result of the pandemic. I am curious if the pandemic has benefitted our hobby for the long term. Will it bring a new group of collectors to the table?
I am a newbie collector this year. The pandemic was a factor since it's related to gold prices, but it is indeed gold rising that was a big push into ancient coins. My last purchase of bullion gold was at 1500/oz. As gold kept climbing, I thought to myself that maybe old, less nice condition coins could be had for somewhat close to spot. I guess I thought that maybe premiums on ancient gold would be higher when gold was cheaper and shrink as gold rises. If the difference in premiums between bullion and ancient gold weren't too much, why not just buy the older stuff? I guess you could say that the historical aspect makes justifying the purchase easier since paying 2000 for an ounce of gold feels icky. Prices could collapse once the vaccine is out (or maybe not with all the deficit spending?). If gold does drop, I'd feel better with my expensive ancients that aren't fully related to the price of gold than with gold bullion that 100% follows the spot price. Ancient coins had been in the back of my mind for years though. I had a small collection of copies of some Ancient Greek coins that I had bought on vacations. I also had a few tiny (genuine?) coins I bought off of ebay that features Medusa and some Apollonia coins. Not too expensive so if they are fake, it's not the end of the world. In fact, it was learning about how often faked some of those coins are that probably delayed my getting more into ancient coins. With modern coins all looking the same with the same diameters and weight, I feel pretty confident picking out a fake (especially with a precious metals verifier). With ancient coins? I could fall for a fake easily I am sure. Also late 2019/early 2020, I started listening to The History of Ancient Greece and later the History of Byzantium podcasts. Of course, listening to the tales of these people/places/deeds made me want to have something from these times. As a kid, I signed up for a catalog of some business that sold antiquities. I couldn't afford anything, but I loved looking at these catalogs and wanted to own some Egyptian statues one day. Now, the day is here that I can afford old things, although my interest is less in the statues and more in the coins (and I was surprised to find the Egyptians didn't mint coins until the Ptolemies ) So, to sum it up, take an already existing interest in history and antiquities, combine it with some history podcasts, throw in a dash of pandemic, and top it off with gold rising, and you have enough interest built to finally look into how one can start buying ancient coins safely. Once I discovered that many dealers offer lifetime guarantees on the authenticity of their coins, I was in. As I began to research coins, I gave up on the idea of buying cheaper beat up gold and just wanted to own decent examples of the coins I wanted at prices comparable with recent sales in various archives. I can't say for sure that I'm a lifer at this point. Something else may well catch my collecting interest one day. But I'll be into this hobby for at least a few years though. Maybe my purchases will slow down as one loses the passion newbies often have, but there are such a variety of ancient coins and so much to learn, I have plenty to keep my attention. Not sure anyone wanted a novel, but if you want to know what motivates a newbie in 2020, hopefully it was worth reading
They always say to buy the book 1st which I never did. I was always worried that the coins I was chasing would rise in price too fast and if I slowed down to buy the book I'd miss them. Now 30 years later I can definitely say some books help. I myself avoid Ebay due to the amount of time required to weed out overpriced garbage & counterfeits. The major auctions will be okay for authenticity. Once the vaccine's out and people start attending shows again, consider going to a major ancients auction in person. There you can see what the stuff actually looks like. Some coins may not seem impressive but then when you see them in person you can see how big they are & other aspects not captured in photos. Also sometimes they provide nice dinners during the auctions. Also you can read history books of periods that you like, then become a bit of a specialist in those areas. Like Conan the Cimmerian/Barbarian for example. Cimmerian coins exist and they are the nomadic destroyers portrayed in the films. Their coins are pretty rare too [I don't own one] -- as well as being gold or electrum I think. Ptolemaic (Egyptian) coins used to be kinda dead but interest is growing in those. They have the uniform tendency to make the biggest stuff they can, no matter what it is. Biggest pyramids, big [somewhat cheap] silver dekadrachms, biggest copper coins: only matched by the Aes Graves, and biggest gold coins. My only Ptolemaic silver coin: Ptolemy V, r 204 - 181 BC, maker of the Rosetta Stone, silver tetradrachm, 13.99 g
i think the quarantine has created new coin collectors of all types of coins and other types of collecting as well.
