Hi All, I am new here and actually not much of a collector yet. I have always had a high interest in ancient roman coins, maybe because my grandparents came to the US from Sicily, but always loved them. I bought some grab bag lots on ebay a few years back and have not really pursued my interest much since. I am feeling the coin itch coming on but would like to get some tips on what are good coins to collect, what to look for and what to avoid. I kind of like the thrill of the grabbag lots that are uncleaned, but not real familiar on the proper process to cleaning the coins. I know everyone would have different opinons, but any advice or pointers would be appreciated. I guess I am wondering where is a good place to start and what coins would be neat to start collecting and what coins one should stay away from. Thanks in advance, Julie
You always loved your grandparent even though they came from Sicily? OK, I know what you meant. My father's family came from Palermo. (Panormos in Greek from Pan-Hormonos "all make-ready" as for ships; same root word as hormone.) When I collected actively, I bought him some ancient coins from there, Greeks, Cathaginians, and Romans. Sicily was a cross-roads and has a long, complex history. The Romans, of course, were the big players, but not the only ones. The native Siculi, the Greeks, Cathaginians, Romans, Moors, Vikings, Germans,... everyone showed up there, it seems. In one of the several small towns I have lived in over the last few years, at a local coin show, I met a dealer who recognized me from my articles in The Celator. I went over his house one Saturday for brunch. He had just gotten a shipment of uncleaned coins and we sorted them. It did not take long to get the hang of it. We sorted them into $1 and $2 items, then resorted those into more or less equal grab bag lots. He set aside some $5 coins. "I think this is Greek," he said. I looked at it. "Yup." He asked, "But Greek Greek or Greek Imperial?" I did not know off hand. He said he would look it up later. The point is that grab bag lots are sorted. They are still fun, of course. I did two or three when I started. I got mine from Francis Rath, an advertiser in The Celator. After a while, though, it was pretty clear that junk is junk. As I said in the other thread, every dollar you spend on these, you cannot spend on something nice. Among the lots I got from Francis Rath were Roman Silvers. I borrowed the British Museum catalogs from a university library and attributed them. It was a learning experience. Collect what you want. We all want to own the coins, of course, but the age-old advice from Aaron Feldman is: Buy the book before you buy the coin. I recommended Wayne Sayles' books in another thread. Also, your local Big Book Store might carry the Whitman book on Greek & Romn Coins by Zander Klawans and Ken Bressett. I think it costs less than $20 still, maybe $15.95, something like that. I cannot recommend The Celator highly enough. (See my review: http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/celator.html) For your $30 per year, you will be lightyears ahead. Ancient coins are ancient history. To appreciate the coins, you need to know the times. The books of MICHAEL GRANT are in every library. As for what to collect -- and that means what you want to collect -- it depends on your passions. For the Romans, the easiest way to start is chronologically in the Repblic and then in the Empire, going from one of each moneyer to one of each emperor. (In republican times, the moneyers were elected, three each year, young men from good families. ) You could build your set of emperors in several ways. I started with The Five Good Emperors from the high point of the Pax Romana. My colleague, Ann Zakelj, pursues the Severan Dynasty. Fill in the blanks and eventually, you have a pretty nice run. You could collect the Women: the Julias, Agrippinas, and others, often the real powers in Rome. In November 2004, I spoke at a museum conference in Calgary and one of the presenters delivered a talk on Livia, the wife of Augustus the mother of Tiberius. She ruled. And they didn't call Julia Domna "Domna" for nothing. You could collect animals, plants or gods, or buildings, ships, astronomical/astrological images, even medical implements. You could collect by attributes on the reverses: Peace, Concordia, Justicia, Libertas, Liberalita, Pietas, Pudicitas, and so on. Those are just for the Romans. Sicily was part of Magna Graecia, "Greater Greece," and the coins of Magna Graecia are well worth saving for. For $200 or so, you could own a museum piece, a true work of art. I built a collection of Greek coins, small silvers worth a day's wages from the towns and times of famous philosophers. On Sicily, there lived Empedocles (inventor of the Earth-Water-Air-Fire idea) and Archimedes. I don't know how religious you are, but some people follow Paul and Luke, one coin from Ephesus, Phillipi, and the other books of the Epistles. There are the Seven Churches mentioned in the Acts, I think. Both of these topics would be fairly inexpensive. Everyone wants Nero and Caligula. Bad guys sell well. Collect something else and you might find it rewarding on several levels. I don't know where your family is from, but as I said, my father's side was from Panormos (Palermo) and it was an old Cathaginian port. His mother's family had come there from Corsica after the fall of Napoleon. Their family name was "Cavilieri." The coins of Carthage often feature horses and horse heads. So, that all seems to tie together for me. I never pursued it, but you can see how almost any personal interest can become a collection, set, or a subset. Start with the books. Read your eyes out. Then buy the coins. Michael
Mike, Wow..thanks for the information and tips.. I believe my grandmother was from Palermo as well. Her maiden name was Campanella and mine was Cino. I hear that Campanella is a popular surname over there to this day.. You offer great tips and pointers I obviously have alot of options on where to begin and alot of history to learn along the way. I need to figure out where to start and learn and have fun!! Thanks for the time you took to reply! Have a great weekend. Julie
Mmarotta has some good advice - books before coins. The first coin dealer I met was kind enough to loan me the Sear Greek and Roman books. He insisted that I read them before he would sell me anything. He also suggested that if I couldn't afford the latest editions of Sear's books, I should look for the older versions because a lot of the info was still useful. You might want to try that. I found a few for sale in a used bookstore. If you start collecting Roman coinage, David Vagi's books are pretty good. They retail for hundreds, but I got the set on eBay for about $50. I'd also suggest going to a few coin shows and sign up for as many mailing lists as you can. Best of luck!
What should a new ancient coin collector avoid? E-bay. Until you have an experienced eye for fakes and bad deals, avoid it like the plague. It's always a good idea to read about the hobby before starting. Some good beginner books are: John Fox's Roman Coins and How to Collect Them Wayne Sayles's Ancient Coin Collecting and Ancient Coin Collecting III: The Roman World: Politics and Propaganda Some excellent online resources include: Wildwinds--which is a virtual catalog of ancient coins V-coins--which is an online shopping mall of reputable coin dealers Warren Esty's website--which is very informative and fun to browse Doug Smith's website--which is also very informative and fun to browse Coin Project--which is a Wildwinds-like online catalog Acsearchinfo--which is a searchable auction results database You can read issues of the now defunct ancient coin collecting magazine, The Celator, online here. As to what to collect, there are all sorts of things in the field of ancient Roman numismatics: Roman Republican Coins Early Roman Imperial Coins: Second and third century Imperial coins: Coins of usupers and breakaway empires: And coins of the late Roman, Christian era:
There are coins from the Greek-speaking provinces of the Roman empire: There are silver coins: Bronze coins bigger than a silver dollar: And everything in-between. Have fun!
You can start just by looking at the coins first. Whether its online or in a store, if there is one near you. The more you look the more you get the feel of how an ancient coin should look like. This will help you avoid counterfeits better. While I believe books on coins are great, its usually used for referencing, identifying, and learning about the history. There are plenty of sites that can also help, some are written by experienced members here on CT. As far as ebay goes, there are legitimate sellers so its not like they are all counterfeits. You can usually tell by the way they set their page up, feedback, and sometimes placing links to their storefront. Its always ok to ask here if you are feeling iffy about a coin.
Just FYI: this thread is almost 12 years old. The advice might be good for other new collectors but the OP of this thread is long gone.
I started looking at the oldest pages and worked forward. There are a lot on interesting threads back there that I haven't seen. I just need to remember to check the dates. Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
As you can ascertain from my userid, I am NOT from Sicily, but do love my wee collection of Syracusians from the 4th-2nd century BC. I do believe they created the loveliest of the lovely ancient coinages. Many of the designs from that era inspired early 20th century Italian coinage.
