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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gao, post: 1544946, member: 19409&quot;]What you might want to do is poke around some reputable dealers to see what you can get in your price range.&nbsp; <a href="http://bargainbinancients.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://bargainbinancients.com" rel="nofollow">Bargain Bin Ancients</a> is a good place to start, but you can also check out <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com[/url" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com[/url" rel="nofollow">Forvm&#039;sp</a> under $40 section (though they generally tend to be more expensive than some other places), or you can do a search in your price range on <a href="http://www.vcoins.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.vcoins.com" rel="nofollow">VCoins</a>.&nbsp; For that last site, you&#039;ll need to search for something specific, so here are some things you&#039;ll generally find cheaply:</p><p><br /></p><p>coin types:</p><p>follis</p><p>antoninianus</p><p><br /></p><p>emperors:</p><p>Constantine</p><p>Constantius II</p><p>Constans</p><p>Valens</p><p>Valentinian</p><p>Theodosius</p><p>Claudius Gothicus</p><p>Aurelian</p><p>Probus</p><p>Gallienus</p><p>Gordian III</p><p><br /></p><p>With these terms, you&#039;ll find Roman coins mostly from the 4th and late 3rd century, and you should be able to get decent examples of all of them for under $30.&nbsp; I rather like Gordian III coins myself, since they still have a more classical look than the more stylized coins that came to prominance within a couple decades and still have a decent silver content, but due to the obscurity of the emperor and the number of coins available, they don&#039;t cost an arm and a leg.&nbsp; If you care more about having something with historical value or a famous emperor than having something in good shape, you might find that some more famous emperors can be had in your price range.&nbsp; If you have any particular interests right now (geographic locations, large coins, small coins, silver, animal depictions, etc.), let us know, and we can probably help you find something you&#039;ll like, particularly if you give us whatever price range you have in mind.</p><p><br /></p><p>For how to procede, at least when it comes to Roman coins, most people start with trying to get one coin of each emperor, and over time they find certain areas that interest them more and end up focusing on those.&nbsp; When I started, I had a secondary goal of trying to get one of each Roman Imperial denomination, and I think that that helped me get a better feel for Roman currency as a whole as well.&nbsp; In case it isn&#039;t already obvious, I collect Roman coins primarily, so hopefully someone else can help with some other areas.&nbsp; I will however say that one shouldn&#039;t forget the Parthians and Sasanids, since they had some pretty interesting and attractive coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>For other resources, a lot of people like Sayle&#039;s Ancient Coin Collecting books, but I found that at least with the first volume, I&#039;d already learned just about everything in it online by the time I got it.&nbsp; For websites, <a href="http://dougsmith.ancients.info" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://dougsmith.ancients.info" rel="nofollow">Doug Smith&#039;s site is one of the best places to start</a>, and <a href="http://forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/ancientcoins.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/ancientcoins.html" rel="nofollow">What I Like About Ancient Coins</a> has a lot of good information as well.&nbsp; You&#039;ll also probably want to check out the boards at Forvm, since they&#039;re filled with experts.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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