Hello all! My little sister is turning 13 in a few weeks. I have gotten her into Lincoln cents, she really enjoys going to coin shows with me and searching for the dates she doesn't have. For her birthday, I want to get her started into ancients, she finds them very interesting. Any ideas?
I find children her age often enjoy the famous figures and animals in popular Greco-Roman mythology. Depending on how much you want to spend I might recommend a bronze from Syracuse, Sicily with Athena and the Hippocamp series, very ancient- fourth century BC and beautiful. What are her interests? That would be also a good place to work from. There are some sellers that carry a lot of nice but bargain coins such as bargainbinancients.com and this guy on vcoins: https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/da...ae17_athena__horse_grazin/961069/Default.aspx
She really enjoys mythology! She likes the history behind the coins a lot. I will look into those bronzes!
This is an example of that series that is really nice and not a bad price if you compare others on vcoins but it might be more than you would want to spend? https://www.ma-shops.com/wallinmynt/item.php?id=8851&lang=en
This is a bargain with a horse but the Athena on the obverse is a little off the flan. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/da...ae17_athena__horse_grazin/961069/Default.aspx
You might try a coin from Larissa. Mine is not the best, but you can find better examples, and examples of differing sizes. THESSALY, LARISSA AR Trihemiobol OBVERSE: Head of nymph Larissa three-quarter facing left in necklace, hair confined by fillet & floating loosely, with ampyx in front REVERSE: ΛAPI (Laris) above, horse feeding right. Struck at Larissa 395-344 BC .75g, 10mm SNG Cop 135
There is the whole series of FEL TEMPS with fallen horsemen from the 4th century. You could build a great collection of them and it wouldn't be terribly expensive. Also coins from Septimius Severus to Gordian III have decent silver content, usually great details and portraits, and a wide variety of deities on the reverse, all for not very much money. Of course there are always exceptions.
You could combine her love for mythology and horses and get her a coin with the Pegasus/pegasos on it. It was a popular motif used in both Greek and Roman coins. Here’s an affordable Greek bronze of a type I’m fond of. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/al...s_amisos__134_gr__2272_mm/917116/Default.aspx And our own CT member Victor has a very nice Roman one from Gallienus’s “Zoo series”. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/vi...s_soli_cons_avg_from_rome/952926/Default.aspx
Bronze Larissa for 18.00 http://bargainbinancients.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=3833
For one similar to my small trihemiobol the prices vary from $100 upwards. The staters will set you back a pretty penny. Take a look at Vcoins listings: https://www.vcoins.com/en/Search.as...cords=100&SearchOnSale=False&Unassigned=False