How should I start an ancient coin collection?

Find what you like and collect that. Don't feel pressured to collect any particular series or culture. I am in the vast minority and specialize in ancient Chinese, and I am proud of it.

 

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Wish i could. But no funds. Plus I'm a novice. But i try collecting for grandbabies. Roll search is enjoyable. Plus even though i have no idea what you ancient collectors talk about. But i enjoy the coin. The surfing cow is a good one

 

Looks like a great book. This is right up the alley I'm interested in.

 

Thanks! This one is actually in my price range.

 

Thanks guys for all the responses! They are all appreciated and will be taken into consideration!

 

May I suggest you start from a different direction.
I became interested by reading Roman history and when I found a period that fascinated me I started to study it in depth and looking at coins from that era and the significance of their illustrations. That was when I started to read up relevant coin books. This need not apply only to Ancient Rome but to Greece etc etc.
Btw, my interest is in the period from the Imperatorial to the end of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.

 

Welcome to the ancients forum, osdet!

 

But what happens when a number of different topics interest you?

The more I read, the more areas become interesting. I drew the line at medieval islamic. I bought Steve Album's book and another on how to read inscriptions, but I just couldn't pick it up. Still, it's an interesting time period that I knew nothing about until I tried to ID a coin.

 

that's exactly how i got started collecting anything, coins and all! ..and welcome to de dark side(where there's more action than a floating crap game)

 

I see two ways to approach this situation. One is to spend half your resources on your specialty (mine was Septimius Severus) and the other half on other things that interest you but to a lesser degree. My favorite college professor advised to learn a little bit about everything and everything about some little thing.

The second is what might be termed 'serial monogamy' collecting. That means specializing in something until you either tire of it or have trouble finding different things at which time you stop collecting that (for a while, anyway) and focus on a different specialty until it wears out its welcome. I have had several specialties in the last decades but retain some degree of interest in each of them even though it may have been several years since I added to that theme. I do not suggest selling the first collection when you start the second since your interests might recycle. This requires you also follow my advice on spending limits. Buy coins with the kind of money you spend on things like eating in restaurants and going to the movies. Don't spend the money you will need for sending the kids to college or paying the electric bill. The problem with coin investing is you have to sell them to get our money and the time you need the money may not line up with the time you can find a buyer for what you want to sell.

We all do it our own way. If you can consider it good enough to own a coin for a week rather than a lifetime, you might be a better coin dealer than a collector. Many of the best dealers do not collect and do not compete with their customers for coins. I could not work this way but many find it their answer.

 

Or in my case buying a car or paying for college. I like this advice because I have a very low budget right now. I'm probably going to have to invest in a book for now and wait till I get more money to be able to afford a coin. Thanks for the advice @dougsmit .

 

By the way, libraries--especially university libraries-- used to have books on coins, sometimes including ancient coins, and many still do. Check your public library for what it has and if you are near a university library, it is likely to have something interesting (in the CJ or 737 section).

 

Being a student and a coin collector does put a different spin on it. You just have to purchase less coins and at longer intervals. Junk boxes become more fun. You might even try your hand at some uncleaned ancients, but just don't expect much and you'll have fun.

 

It can be tough and you have to be very aware of your spending, but I find I can still buy several coins almost whenever I want. However, most of these get resold for an average of about double what I paid to help pay for the ones I want to keep. Or in the case of the next couple semesters, pay for my study abroad.

 

Harassment of other users is definitely against CT rules so you would be justified to report him to management.