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Message:: [QUOTE="robinjojo, post: 7853472, member: 110226"]I've been in a reflective phase lately.  I suppose retirement leads one to think about the past, with the dictates of holding down a job and dealing with many of life's stresses in the rearview mirror. Ever since I joined CT, I have been more focused on the individual coins in the collection, often often based on many of the excellent CT threads and posts.  Many of the posts are of coins with impressive provenances, while many have been held in collections for many years, even decades. The foundation of my collecting coins has been a life-long love of history, going back to at least the third grade, when we were studying ancient Greece and the wars with Persia.  American history followed, of course.  Perhaps the single greatest influence on my interests has been the eleven volume set titled The Story of Civilization, by Will and Ariel Durant.  That set, spanning the evolution of western civilization, written in an engaging and sometimes eloquent style, opened up many windows for me, particularly in Roman, Byzantine, medieval, renaissance and modern periods, from the Age of Enlightenment forward. That was back in the early 1980's (brain fog does not allow me to give specific dates or years any more).  At that time I had pretty much liquidated most of my US coins, particularly Morgan and Peace dollars. I still have some US type coins.  This was the start of collecting modern world coinage, generally 18th century and earlier, of Europe and Spain's colonies.  It was also the start of collecting ancients, in earnest. Here are some examples of acquisitions from the 1980's - 1990's. Attica, Athens, tetradrachm, acquired from Haran Berk in 1983. [ATTACH=full]1352753[/ATTACH] Double mining thaler, Brunswick-Luneburg Celle, 1662, acquired in 1983. [ATTACH=full]1352795[/ATTACH] Oxford, half pound or ten shillings, Charles I, 1643.  Acquired in 1985. [ATTACH=full]1352755[/ATTACH] AE As, Caligula, Vesta reverse, 37-38 CE, acquired in 1991 at my local coin shop. [ATTACH=full]1352780[/ATTACH] 30 nummi, Tiberius II Constantine, Cyzicus, 578-582 CE, acquired in 1992, CNA XIX. [ATTACH=full]1352757[/ATTACH] 8 reales, Philip II, Segovia, 1590, acquired locally in 1992. [ATTACH=full]1352787[/ATTACH] From around the mid-90s through the 2010s I my focus changed almost entirely on Spanish colonial and mainland coinage.  Additionally, the purchase of the house in 1993 meant the liquidation a a good portion of the collection, particularly Roman coins and world crowns, to help raise funds for the down payment. 8 escudos, Ferdinand VI, Lima, 1750, acquired in 1994. [ATTACH=full]1352807[/ATTACH] 50 reales, Philip IV, Segovia, 1635, acquired from Superior Galleries in 1997 (note: acquiring this coin required more coins from the collection to be sold.  Ironically, this was the year that both my wife and I were fired from our positions. This happened after winning the lot at auction!) [ATTACH=full]1352791[/ATTACH] Come around 2017, a change in focus again.  I guess I was getting bored with the Spanish colonial coins.  Unless you are a specialist, collecting by variety/date/mint, it is fairly easy to grow a good, representative set of these coins.  So, back to ancients, with an emphasis on owls.... Attica, Athens, tetradrachm, Starr Group V, acquired in May 2020. [ATTACH=full]1352826[/ATTACH] Attica, Athens, archaic tetradrachm, circa 500-480 BCE, acquired from Kirk Davis, 2021. [ATTACH=full]1352829[/ATTACH] Please share your story about your collection, and how it evolved over time. Thanks[/QUOTE]

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