Today was the capper to a stupendous week in the life of this new ancients convert, but let me start at the beginning . . . I've met some good cyber friends over the course of this year through discussion here and elsewhere and they have essentially converted me from being a US coin guy into a full fledged darksider and ancients dude. They've got me listening to The History of Rome podcast series by Mike Duncan (THoR), reading Roman history books, and daily perusing this Ancients forum and all out trying to learn as much-as fast- as I can. Over on the CU forums @lordmarcovan and @Aethelred started this game called Numismatic Gladiator (NG) where the assignment to the selected gladiators is to battle it out by popular vote based upon a numismatic purchase. I came out on top in NG III, with the purchase of a US large cent. As the series of NG continued to play out, NG X was to be a championship round. Nine coin nerds duking it out with $10 or less purchases. I strayed way outside the realm of US coinage in this round and went with a Constantine I Campgate. I won, amazingly, and had my first ancient. Skip now a couple months . . . I've just finished reading "Dying Every Day: Seneca at the court of Nero" by James Romm and am up to the "Year of Four Emperors" in the THoR podcast and someone has seen my paltry 6 Roman coins and also knows I am about to begin on Suetonius' "The Twelve Caesars". This, Tuesday I got a mysterious package in the mail - contained within: I won't mention who sent these coins, but it was one of the kindest and most generous gestures on their part to ensure that I had one of the 12 Caesars to hold in my hand as I read Suetonius. Fortuitously, I have been looking forward to this week long before the mysterious package arrived. Today I took a day off work. This morning I slept a touch late, got up, lazed around and by 9a or so was digging through piles of plastic slabs. I found what I was looking for and set them aside for later. By 11:30a I was at my daughters school to eat lunch with her and her 4th grade classmates. At 1:00p I was strolling up and down the aisles of The Houston Money Show. I proceeded over to Bruce Burton's Numismatic Literature booth as we are kindered bibliomanes and mentioned I was on the hunt for ancients. He recommended I go see his friend Nick along the far wall. We talked for a bit longer, but I had places to go and along the way I sold those plastic thingamajigs with a bit of ease and absolutely no regret. At the far aisle, I found Nick by the description Bruce had given. I stop and say hello and that I have a new found interest in ancients and that I've been learning about them quite a bit . . . ARRRGGGGHHH, $3,000, 650, 275, 6-10-12 thousand and more - I'm poor. It's actually quite busy at Nick's table so he mentions he has a discount box and that if I come back in a bit when it slows he'll let me look through it. Off I go. The far aisle here is where the ancients are hoarded and soon I land in front of Allen G. Berman's table. We talk for a few minutes (or longer) and finally he says to pull up a chair. "Do you want the under $50 box, or the over $50 box?" he said. "Um, how about the over $50 box" was my rather weak reply. Long double row boxes of ancients and the most I've laid eyes on in one place. We talk, I ask questions, he answers. I ask more questions, look through more boxes, ask more questions. A few people roll up to the table while I'm there and ask Allen to take a look at this or that and as I overhear him expound on coins in rapid fire talk I have no doubt I'm in the right place and won't hesitate to confirm Allen's deep wealth of knowledge in ancient and medieval coinage. I sat there and was graciously received, and taught, for almost an hour and a half and came away with a couple purchases: Dealings wrapped up with Allen, I head back to see Nick. Nick, I learn, is Director of Pegasi Numismatics and from all appearances I seem to be way out of my league here, yet nevertheless he is cordial and freely giving of his time with me. He asks what I am collecting and I sheepishly reply that my focus is non-extant at this point. I pepper him with questions, just as I did with Allen, and soon I realize he too is freely willing to educate me. I peruse the discount box and pull an Elagabalus AR Ant. and a Maximinus Thrax. These are price marked on the 2x2 insert and I was only expecting to purchase a single coin but when he quoted me the cost I eagerly accepted both: A good day, a good week ... Thanks friends! Please post any example of a gifted coin or one that is special to you.
wow, what a great week dadams! don't forget to show off the reverse of your coins! some nice lookin' stuff man!
Welcome to the dark side. For those on the Blog, this is where it's at this weekend, The George R Brown in Houston, TX. @dadams if you go to the show tomorrow, you can see my display on grading ancient coins (with much stolen, er borrowed, from Doug's web site) My treasure from today, an early struck sextans at 25 grams - I really liked the placement of grading services next to the ancient coin section. Good planning GHCC. If anyone is interested in the next Houston area show -
I am delighted to have made a convert. It is the highest praise to which a dedicated numismatist can aspire, I think. Particularly to have a convert who is already so well-read and shows such promise in his newly-chosen field. (It was not coincidence that made you the reigning Numismatic Gladiator champion, and victorious over even Aethelred and I in the $10 NG10 championship round!) @dadams- now that you're officially a "Darksider", don't forget to go get fitted out for your Imperial storm trooper armor. Go see that strange looking lady organism(?) in the room down at the end of the hall. She it will have you sign all the forms, and will probably issue you with the standard BlasTech E-11 blaster rifle, but I sense the Dark Side of the Force is very strong within you, so I suspect you'll be switching to a lightsaber once your Darkside Jedi training is complete. You are terribly lucky to live somewhere where attendance at a major show does not require hours in the car! My last national show was Charlotte ANA in 2007, and while I browsed the ancients a bit there, I had not yet begun collecting them seriously. Ironically, it was the very weekend after coming home from that show that I finally decided to surrender to the urge, and take up Roman Imperials. I then set out upon the very same dusty road you now tread, in search of adventure. Those were heady days indeed, and I remember them fondly. My enthusiasm grew by leaps and bounds, and my reading became increasingly focused on ancient history, just as yours has. I see a bright future for you, numismatically speaking. Of course I respect your past experience as a ... umm... what was that fancy word you used... bibliomane? Yeah. That. A rare book guy. LOL. That experience should have some unexpected tie-ins that will assist you in your new numismatic focus. As to the dealers you mentioned, I have done business with them once or twice and would absolutely trust them. I had the pleasure of meeting Allen Berman at a show, once. He was a big fan of my eccentric Holey Coin costume, and actually bought a holey Draped Bust half right off my vest! (Not the famous discovery coin, but the one that had replaced it.) I like your new Max Thrax and Elagabalus you got from Pegasi. Nice, attractive ancient silver was one thing that jazzed me the most when I got started with Romans. I constantly found myself thinking, "I can't believe I got something this cool for the price of a common-date Morgan dollar!" @Aethelred - pat yerself on the back, O Dead King. We did it! We finally captured a live one and brought him over to the Dark Side!
PS- as you have now discovered (and obviously already knew, thanks to your victory in the Numismatic Gladiator X "cheap coin competition"), relative poverty need not be a bar to collecting ancient coins. Unlike some numismatic specialties, they are collectible in every budget range, from one dollar per coin on up to a million or more. I suspect if more of the general public knew this, and were not so intimidated about reading on the topic, there would be a lot more collectors of them.
Wonderful posts and thread @dadams !! It has been truly a 'phenomenal week' for you!! I'll have to give a little thought to which coins(s) mean the most to me since I sold off and then returned to ancients a while back and now each has significance for me....but one seems to come to mind....
I wish I could see it but Houston is beyond any consideration when I go coining. I had a big week, too, but mine will not be here until the post office decides it will. I deeply regret the fact that my area has nice shows bunched together in September, October and November before taking off until Spring. It requires special budget/training skills for a season rather like college football players have for their Fall weekends.
It looks like you had a very good coining week indeed! Ancients do have a steep learning curve, but you seem to be navigating along it just fine. Please do show the reverses when you get a chance.
Very cool scores @dadams and it's exciting to hear of your new passion. Gift coins? Well this one was graciously gifted to me when I was just starting out (thanks @Bing & @John Anthony ) Constantine I, AD 309 - 337 AE3, 2.5g, 19mm; 1h; Siscia mint, AD 328-329 Obv.: CO[NST]AN-TIN[V]S AVG, diademed head right Rev.: PROVIDEN-TIAE AVGG, campgate with two turretts, star above, 9 brick rows with dots in top row In Ex.: ΓSTS (crescent)
Welcome to the world of ancients. I came about in 2009 and continue to have it as my full time hobby. Still have plenty of fun after all this time. Those are great for some first acquisitions.
I'm starting to think we should all shut up and not let the world know about the awesome and fun hobby of collecting ancient coins. These guys are my new competition Kidding (sort of ) What a great week you're having, @dadams! Welcome to the family
As you might imagine I was pretty excited to show these here and figured I'd provide quick obverse shots just to give an overview. I'm figuring now with some coins I can participate a bit more here and will look forward to posting the coins in full as I can. Here is the Dupondius of Vespasian with a Fides Publica reverse that was gifted to me: @rrdenarius I could kick myself for not having seen the exhibits yesterday. I fully meant to do a walk through but obviously got sidetracked. I can't make it back today so I appreciate the photos. It's amazing to me the value received in ancients. US coins are expensive-almost prohibitively expensive for me and quite frankly somewhat boring. Ancients offer tremendous variety in style, history and price-what could be better? @lordmarcovan & @Aethelred - appreciate you guys more than you know. -Doug
Thats the main reason I ditched U.S., between the slabbing, being scuffed for buying u.s. coins in VG-EX range due to what I can afford. I was floored at how inexpensive ancients can be. It's available at all price levels, even little Joey $10 a week allowance *mine was $7 growing up in the 80s*. I enjoy looking at U.S. but that is as far as I will go. I still buy World Moderns every few days and I also buy Medievals, they can be affordable, but not as much as ancients, sadly.
dadams, it sounds like you're having a great time collecting ancient coins!! => congrats, that's the ultimate prize (you're obviously doing it correctly!!)
A great week indeed, glad to see that you are enjoying this great hobby so much. I never get tired of reading ancient history and looking at ancient coins and even though I've been doing this since I was a teenager I have never lost the sense of wonder I get when I hold an ancient coin in my hands.
Hey, @dadams- check this out. Found it in my old photos. I once owned your Vespasian, which means that somehow it went from @Aethelred to me, back to him, and then to you! That one's made the rounds. I thought it looked familiar. Here are my wretched 2011 photos of it.
