How do I get into ancients?

I'm not a big ancients collector by any means, but I would say the way to get started is the same as with any type of coin: read online, buy some basic books, find a coin or two that speaks to you and buy them. There are good introductory books available for $20-ish, and, depending on what you latch on to, you can find good, quality coins for anywhere between $20 and $200 easily to get you started.

Keep posting here, and feel free to ask questions, even if you think they are super basic. Try and connect with a coin club or a local collector or dealer who's knowledgeable and passionate about ancients.

I would avoid eBay like the plague (at least at first -- if you can't spot a fake, don't even try the 'bay). Stick with places like CoinTalk, VCoins, and Forvm for online purchases, or, preferably, find a local dealer.

 

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Funny you say that last part... local dealer. Did you know there are places in America without a coin shop? In fact, before I moved to Cincinnati, I lived in a town in New Mexico where there wasn't a coin dealer. The best we had was a pawn shop, and only 1 pawn shop to boot, in the entire town. So while you might prefer a "local dealer," that may not always be available. And don't get me started about the LCSs in Cincinnati. Only 2 (both stores owned by the same guy) even touch ancients, and then they are horribly overpriced.

 

Believe me, I do. I'm from one of them. Even where I live now, a metro area of 7.5 million people, I still haven't been able to find a truly local LCS that I like. At least there are some decent small local/regional shows to go to!

 

Uncleaned lots in my opinion, you start with a large quantity, kind of cheap, and usually common, and easy to identify. You also get experience in removing encrustation, and dirt from ancients without risking much money. Than move on too more valuable and better coins

 

I feel obligated to repeat for the thousandth time my opinion that uncleaned coins are a bad way to start. I would prefer beginners buy a few relatively poor but easily identifiable fully readable coins (JA sells things like this for as low as $5) than a larger pile of relatively frustrating coins with minimal details and even less eye appeal. $25 might get you 5 ugly, common but identifiable coins or 25 shards of metal that were once coins and might be identified by some of us that have been looking at coins for decades but might challenge a beginner to declare which side was up. Cleaning is a completely separate hobby. Some people love to do it and take pride in turning an ugly dirty lump into an ugly clean lump. Sometimes they hit the jackpot but that usually means they knew enough to buy coins that were potentially cleanable (YOC obviously has this skill). My side hobby is photography of coins. Some people are into tooling or repairing coins. Some people are into making fakes. Some people do these sides as their main hobby and don't even collect coins. To each his own.

 

I was into uncleaned coins once. There was a time when cleaning coins was more fun. There used to be large uncleaned Roman coins (1st-2nd century) available, and you'd really find something interesting. There used to be good quantities of uncleaned Greek or Byzantine coins available. There used to be "high grade" uncleaned coins, with every coin a keeper (although no doubt the batch would have changed hands and been sorted through many times before it reached the final buyer).

I haven't seen anything really tempting on the market for quite a few years. You really do get tired of Constantius II and 4th century slugs - which is what you get when you purchase uncleaned coins on ebay these days.

 

I sort of agree with Doug. I started off with uncleaned coins and if I bought 20, I would be lucky if there were more than 3 or 4 coins that would be identifiable. Nearly all the coins were culls. However, I did learn a lot and it was a huge amount of fun.

Once you hold a "good" coin in your hand, your interest in uncleaned lots tends to diminish fairly rapidly.

The amount of money I spent on uncleaned lots could have bought me many "good" coins. If I were starting out again would I still do it? Quite possibly, because it was fun. If you have the urge to learn cleaning, go ahead and buy a couple of lots. You will need patience to do it properly, it can take months to clean a coin. Get it out of your system before you move onto the better stuff.

It depends on your budget. They say "buy the best coin you can afford". Keep a look out on Vcoins for cheaper coins, look at the state of the coins, look at the state of the coins that you like. If they are a little more expensive, save up for them.

Stay away from ebay before you have a little experience under your belt. Lots of fakes out there.

 

What Pishpash said.

 

One thing I'd like to add on the topic of uncleaned coins is that as my interests have changed I've been relatively easily able to recoup some or all of my investment in previous coins except for the $200 or so I spent on uncleaned coins. That's not to say you can't occasionally turn a profit on them, but most of them even after cleaning aren't worth even what I paid for them before cleaning because only so many collectors want to spend $2-$3 on a crappy common type of Constantius II when they could spend $10 on a significantly nicer example of the type or $20 on an almost-perfect example. This may not matter to some but it has been important to me as many of the coins I spent over a year collecting are now being sold off to finance my current interests.

 

You could always take a look at the for sale section on this website....
I agree that cleaning coins is not a good way to start, but you may delve into this side of things after a while. Its the closest thing to discovering your own coins unless you live where I do and are lucky enough to be able to go out and find your own Roman coins with a metal detector.
ebay is great .... but again, dont start there and if you do check that the sellers are listed on the ebay trusted sellers list, which although not bombproof, will allow you to buy from sellers who are happy to accept returns in the event you are sold a fake by accident.
I have thousands of late Roman bronze coins which are all for sale, but never seem to get round to listing them. If you let me know your budget, I will happily PM you with some photos and maybe get you on your way with your first ancient coins? (sorry Mods... not really advertising, just helping a new forum member out)

 

You've crossed over.......I will resist, to the end, the temptation.......

 

Its a matter of time @green18

 

Germans on the Eastern Front, and at Stalingrad, but I shall resist........

 

Where is this list? Is it only sellers of ancients?

 

Yes I believe so. You have to email to be put on the list and then checks are made to verify you etc.

 

vcoins... 5 times as trusted as eBay, never an issue of a return. I wouldn't trust a an eBay seller, unless it's the Lost Dutchman.

 

I like auction route best, you can decide on what you want, how much to pay. Plus, you have (i hope!) complete peace of mind, that the coin is genuine/ accurately graded, and that upon payment you will receive your merchandise.
Even famous auction sites received consignments where they rejected certain coins for problems with authencity, or improper care like they were dipped/cleaned...

 

Where do you get multiples like '5 times as trusted from'? Is that the ratio of good to bad experiences you have had. If you have had many bad experiences, then I assume its because you are not experienced enough to spot obvious fakes, or you have paid in cash???
Why do you trust Lost Dutchman? probably because you have had dealings with him. I trust a great many ebay sellers because I have had dealings with them. How many bad experiences have you had to evidence your feelings about ebay sellers, or is it just a gut feeling?
If you pay by paypal, then there is absolutely nothing to worry about.... you are fully protected.

graded? lets not start on the grading of ancients as a good thing for an auction site. As for receiving an item...pay by paypal. You are fully covered.

 

If you are a COMPLETE novice, then it may be better to steer away from ebay, but in doing so you will certainly be missing out on a great source of top quality ancients at very affordable prices. I have NEVER bought from vcoins, Forum or more than maybe 1 auction site (many years ago) . My coin collection is not full of fake coins and I bet I have paid far less than most for coins of the same grade/type which have been sourced elsewhere. If 1 coin in every 100 I bought was a fake, it could be written off as a very acceptable loss if i bought on ebay alone as i would have saved myself far more in the previous purchases.
I would never pay the prices that JS puts on his coins.... not in a million years.

 

@YOC I'm going to answer in multiple responses, to more accurately answer each question you stated. Forgive me for doing so, but I want clarify to my responses.