I May Be Hooked, But What Ancient Coins Stir You?

I'd say that it's probably best to avoid ebay until you have a good feel for how the coins that interest you should look unless someone recommends some specific sellers to you. Bargain Bin Ancients is a good starting point, but you also might want to look at VCoins and do some searches within whatever price range you want. 4th and late 3rd century emperors are the cheapest, particularly Constantine and Constantius II.

 

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I just checked it out. It seems like a safe place to start.

 

Vcoins is the bomb for finding ancients. You can find everything from bargain priced stuff, even in bulk, to very high end stuff. Another place to check is cngcoins.com - Classical Numismatic Group - they have been around awhile and have some very very nice stuff - some of which even buries my thoughts of affording it.

 

I'll agree that vcoins is quite good. But you still have to be careful, even there - not all sellers are of the same caliber. It is quite difficult to get the hang of figuring out what is a good at a good price. My advice to you is to look at EVERYTHING! Go through everyone's entire inventory on vcoins and, before you even finish that, go here http://search2.vcoins.com/ and search from the last 24 hours - start doing that daily. Check every CNG auction, and thumb through every sale listed here: https://www.numisbids.com/

 

I agree. I use Vcoins for a few specialty items, but overall I find most prices on the high side. I do also agree Ebay is getting pricey, (especially BIN's), but OTOH just bought two groups there, each eight silver coins, at what I consider an excellent price, (one has a bashlik Parthian). True auctions, and bargains, still happen there. Its so bad I never even look at BIN offers on Ebay anymore, and limit myself to my predefined searches.

Ancients CAN be cheap, it just takes knowledge and work. I would say to not pay more than $15 or $20 for any coin until you have 6 months or more collecting ancients under you belt. Like Doug said, there is no standard pricing mechanism, so prices can vary wildly.

If you ever have a question about a coin, ask us. While most of us haven't been in this hobby as long as Doug, cumulatively I believe we have a pretty good level of expertise, especially in the common issues you most likely will be pursuing.

 

Doug must have hung out with Aristotle, Archimedes and Alexander the Great :devil:

 

95% of the sellers on there are great. But there are a couple of European ones that sell harshly cleaned coins, and one seller in the USA that doesn't stand behind their sale. I think they are still only on Vcoins because not enough people have reported them. Fortunately those sellers sell more modern era coins than ancients. I have had the one seller that I purchased an Irish coin from that didn't deliver, a few days later my money was refunded because the coin was "lost" to add insult to injury the seller refunded the money and payPoo took their fee from my refund because the seller didn't send it as a refund.

 

Forgive me, I misspoke. The dealers on vcoins are almost all trustworthy and stand behind their sales. Very few sell fakes. What I intended by my remark was that the quality of the coins is not always top-notch, and that the prices can often be too high. :thumb:

 

A lot of great advice since last night (especially if I don't know, come here and ask). I have been looking and figured like medorman (is that right?) I will stay in the $15-$30 range for a while.

I like all of the coins, but I really am drawn to the ones depicting females. Whithin the above stated range (or there abouts), any suggestions of coins to look for?

 

Syracuse or Ionia. Better chance price wise with Ionia though.

 

Ah now were talking, I am the one with the soft spot with empresses and even greeks with females.

Julia Domna, Faustina I, Faustina II/jr., Julia Maesa, Otacilia Severa. Those are just some empresses that can be bought within the $30, silver too.

Though the condition will be soso. $50 each can get you father with those names above. Females on Greek Bronzes can be found cheaper.

 

You can just call me Chris. We have a smallish group here of ancient collectors, Arditirion is Bill, Dougsmth is Doug, RandyGecki is Randy, and Mat is, well I forget. We usually just say each others names, but I know Bill and I made it hard.

Btw, just as an aside, mine comes from the fact I used to own half of a tiny town called Medora. Medora+man.

If anyone else like ScottishMoney, Gao, etc wishes to say their real name I will try to remember it. I am horrible at names, though, (except for some weird reason I remember all Parthian, Sassanian, Roman Emperors, etc names..........)

 

I have a soft spot for Grecian goddesses myself. Artemis/Diana is my favourite though.

 

I've always had a fondness for Spes.

 

Also like Nike:



The coin that will haunt me until I own it.

 

I love those types too. Thats why this is one of my favorite ancients. Just love the portrait.

 

Cause she "hitches her skirt"?

 

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Those are simply beautiful. I assume those are the kind of coins that cost multi-thousands?

Regarding names, until I know I am not annoying everyone, I will stick with lonegun.

 

The greek scottishmoney posted probably is, the 2 I posted no.

 

No, if I wanted something explicit I'd get some spintriae. I like Spes because she is the goddess of hope. She's shown holding a flower (always a charming image) and lifting the hem of her skirt, as if to prepare herself to wade through the muck of the present into a better tomorrow. Although she wasn't a "real" god and was mostly just a personification used for imperial propaganda, I still like her.