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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kirispupis, post: 8046751, member: 118780&quot;]After several years debating when to get into ancient coins, it was almost exactly a year ago when I put my first order in for a few coins from Forum Ancient Coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s hard to believe how far I&#039;ve gotten in a year, and a lot of it I owe to the experts on this Forum. Your articles have been extremely interesting and there are numerous terms, bits of history, and numismatic concepts I&#039;ve learned just from reading here. So, I owe all of you a huge thank you!</p><p><br /></p><p>Now for some coins...</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are two of my original purchases.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392843[/ATTACH] </p><p>Tenedos AR Obol 450-387 BCE</p><p>.454g 8.6mm</p><p>Ex Forum Ancient Coins</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392844[/ATTACH] </p><p>Kolophon AR Diobol 375-350 BCE</p><p>1.035g 10.5mm</p><p>Ex Forum Ancient Coins</p><p><br /></p><p>I must admit that, though I&#039;d read the size from the descriptions, I was shocked at how small these coins are. Still, I was hooked, and I then came to an agreement with my wife that if I sold most of the other collections taking room in the house, I could use the funds to buy coins. These consisted of GI Joe, Star Wars, and Transformers toys from when I was a kid. I also sold some antique firecracker packs that my wife was very happy to see off.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392845[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Now with some funds, I made a list of the coins I wanted. It started off like this.</p><p>1) Every Greek city, except for the ones where only the museums have those coins.</p><p>2) Every Roman emperor</p><p><br /></p><p>I quickly realized this wasn&#039;t happening, so I prioritized the following three coins.</p><p>1) An Athenian owl</p><p>2) An Olbian dolphin coin, because dolphins are awesome</p><p>3) A lifetime tet from Alexander the Great</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually, I picked up all three.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392846[/ATTACH] </p><p>Cast dolphin Æ</p><p>25 mm., 1,50 g.</p><p>Ex Savoca</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392847[/ATTACH] </p><p>ATTICA, Athens. Circa 454-404 BC. AR Tetradrachm (22.5mm, 17.18 g, 1h). Helmeted head of Athena right, with frontal eye / Owl standing right, head facing, closed tail feathers; olive sprig and crescent to left; all within incuse square. Kroll 8; HGC 4, 1597. Artistic compact head of Athena.</p><p>Ex CNG inventory June 2004</p><p>Ex CNG 2021</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392848[/ATTACH] </p><p>Kingdom of Macedon, Alexander III &#039;the Great&#039; AR Tetradrachm. Struck under Stamenes or Archon. Babylon, circa 324/3 BC. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion&#039;s skin headdress / Zeus Aëtophoros seated to left, holding sceptre; AΛEΞANΔPOY to right, monogram over M below throne. Price 3599; Müller 670. 16.68g, 27mm, 2h.</p><p>Ex Roma</p><p><br /></p><p>At the same time I picked up the Alexander, I also picked up this.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392849[/ATTACH] </p><p>Julius Caesar AR Denarius. Military mint travelling with Caesar, 49-48 BC. Elephant advancing to right, trampling on serpent; CAESAR in exergue / Emblems of the pontificate: simpulum, aspergillum, securis (surmounted by wolf&#039;s head), and apex. Crawford 443/1; CRI 9; BMCRR Gaul 27-30; RSC 49. 3.26g, 20mm, 2h.</p><p>Ex Roma</p><p><br /></p><p>Between the two coins, something changed in me. It wasn&#039;t about the coins! It was about the <i>history</i>! Each of these coins told a story. Some told more interesting coins than others, and as I read more the grandest story to me became the period around Alexander the Great and the chaos right after his death. I started to compose a list of coins necessary to tell this story, and it&#039;s now grown to 54 coins (out of 126 total). </p><p><br /></p><p>Here are two of my favorites from the collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392850[/ATTACH] </p><p>Ptolemy I </p><p>AR Tet</p><p>Sv.162 (37 ex) - Cop.29 - GC.7750 var. - BMC.- - MP.6</p><p>Ex CGB</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1392851[/ATTACH] </p><p>Egypt, Achaemenid Province. Sabakes, satrap, AR Tetradrachm. Circa 340-333 BC. Head of Athena to right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Owl standing to right with head facing, olive sprig with berry and crescent in upper left field; uncertain letters to left, &quot;Sabakes symbol&quot; and SWYK (in Aramaic) to right. Van Alfen Type III, 24-34 var. (O11/R- [unlisted rev. die]); Nicolet-Pierre, Monnaies 18-26 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 4 var. (no letters on left of rev.); BMC 265 var. (same). 16.61g, 25mm, 9h.</p><p><br /></p><p>The next year I expect to not acquire nearly as much, as my budget&#039;s pretty shot. Still, I expect this to be a life-long obsession.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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