Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 37317, member: 57463&quot;]You always loved your grandparent <b>even though</b> they came from Sicily? OK, I know what you meant.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>My father&#039;s family came from Palermo.&nbsp; (<u>Panormos</u> in Greek from Pan-Hormonos &quot;all make-ready&quot; as for ships; same root word as <u>hormone.</u>)&nbsp; When I collected actively, I bought him some ancient coins from there, Greeks, Cathaginians, and Romans.&nbsp; Sicily was a cross-roads and has a long, complex history.&nbsp; The Romans, of course, were the big players, but not the only ones.&nbsp; The native Siculi, the Greeks, Cathaginians, Romans, Moors, Vikings, Germans,... everyone showed up there, it seems.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>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 <i>The Celator.</i> I went over his house one Saturday for brunch.&nbsp; He had just gotten a shipment of uncleaned coins and we sorted them.&nbsp; It did not take long to get the hang of it.&nbsp; We sorted them into $1 and $2 items, then resorted those into more or less equal grab bag lots.&nbsp; He set aside some $5 coins.&nbsp; &quot;I think this is Greek,&quot; he said.&nbsp; I looked at it. &quot;Yup.&quot; He asked, &quot;But Greek Greek or Greek Imperial?&quot;&nbsp; I did not know off hand.&nbsp; He said he would look it up later.&nbsp; The point is that grab bag lots are <b>sorted.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>They are still fun, of course.&nbsp; I did two or three when I started.&nbsp; I got mine from Francis Rath, an advertiser in <i>The Celator.</i>&nbsp; After a while, though, it was pretty clear that junk is junk.&nbsp; As I said in the other thread, every dollar you spend on these, you cannot spend on something nice.&nbsp; Among the lots I got from Francis Rath were Roman Silvers.&nbsp; I borrowed the British Museum catalogs from a university library and attributed them.&nbsp; It was a learning experience.</p><p><br /></p><p>Collect what you want.&nbsp; We all want to own the <u>coins,</u> of course, but the age-old advice from Aaron Feldman is: Buy the book before you buy the coin.&nbsp; I recommended Wayne Sayles&#039; books in another thread.&nbsp; Also, your local Big Book Store might carry the Whitman book on Greek &amp; Romn Coins by Zander Klawans and Ken Bressett. I think it costs less than $20 still, maybe $15.95, something like that.&nbsp; I cannot recommend <i>The Celator</i> highly enough. (See my review: <a href="http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/celator.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/celator.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/celator.html</a>) For your $30 per year, you will be lightyears ahead.&nbsp; Ancient coins are ancient history.&nbsp; To appreciate the coins, you need to know the times.&nbsp;&nbsp; The books of MICHAEL GRANT are in every library.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>As for what to collect -- and that means what you want to collect -- it depends on your passions.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; (In republican times, the moneyers were elected, three each year, young men from good families. )&nbsp; You could build your set of emperors in several ways.&nbsp; I started with The Five Good Emperors from the high point of the Pax Romana.&nbsp; My colleague, Ann Zakelj, pursues the Severan Dynasty.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; She <u>ruled.</u>&nbsp; And they didn&#039;t call Julia Domna &quot;Domna&quot; for nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; Those are just for the Romans.&nbsp; Sicily was part of Magna Graecia, &quot;Greater Greece,&quot; and the coins of Magna Graecia are well worth saving for.&nbsp; 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&#039;s wages from the towns and times of famous philosophers.&nbsp; On Sicily, there lived Empedocles (inventor of the Earth-Water-Air-Fire idea) and Archimedes.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;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.&nbsp; There are the Seven Churches mentioned in the Acts, I think. Both of these topics would be fairly inexpensive.&nbsp; Everyone wants Nero and Caligula.&nbsp; Bad guys sell well.&nbsp; Collect something else and you might find it rewarding on several levels.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know where your family is from, but as I said, my father&#039;s side was from Panormos (Palermo) and it was an old Cathaginian port.&nbsp; His mother&#039;s family had come there from Corsica after the fall of Napoleon.&nbsp; Their family name was &quot;Cavilieri.&quot;&nbsp; The coins of Carthage often feature horses and horse heads.&nbsp; So, that all seems to tie together for me.&nbsp; I never pursued it, but you can see how almost any personal interest can become a collection, set, or a subset.</p><p><br /></p><p>Start with the books. Read your eyes out.&nbsp; Then buy the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Michael[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in