Scared about collecting ancients

What I do is buy high-quality coins I like, regardless of their origin. They don’t have to be in a particular area, though I am more willing to pay up for coins in areas I am familiar with since I am more familiar with the market for them.

But for the broader scope of ancients, I collect coins that tell an interesting story. They don’t have to be in high grade, but I do prefer them to at least be readily identifiable. I too would rather not have tons of cheap low-quality coins.

I think the dealers that sell slabbed ancients rely on this assumption more than NGC does. They often price at 2-4x the value (or more).

 

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I agree with Doug/ everyone should have their own collecting goals, all what counts is that we are all having fun with our hobby, and learning so much history as a side benefit.I collect coinage from all over the map/ time periods/ strive for mintstate quality. I have around 1200 coins/ 75 percent gold/ rest silver, even couple"modern" ones in Paladium/ Platinum. My pet peeves against slabbed coins are twofold/ not enough data/ liberal grading. However, I love how these coins are securely protected and are easy to admire All collectors are different, that makes it so interesting. Auctions prove this everytime, you will see a Trajan Aureus in VF hammer for 4K/ while someone will pay 50K for a FDC example.

 

I agree with this to a great degree. I do not require a coin to be high grade but I do avoid things that can not be identified. That means I would avoid an EF late Roman with mintmark off flan unless it bore some characteristic that made me certain what was missing. For example, I am not sure what came over me that made me buy the Theodora below.



On the other hand, the Julia Domna below is missing some important legend but is still the best of its type I have seen so buying it was done without a second thought.


We each will define 'interesting' and 'low quality' differently. I have gone public with what I consider 'interesting' on my Favorites page. The coins on it range in value starting from $6 and up (over 100x up). Cheap has nothing to do with being uninteresting.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/favs.html

 

That is a wonderful assortment of interesting coins. As I was looking through them, I noticed that my "Man I wish I had that coin!" picks tended to be something other than Roman. Here are my 10 favorites:



Are those Greek coins that I have tended to pick? Maybe I'll have another collection to put together if I ever get the Emperors completed

 

One of these is Roman. Here's mine:

L. Plautius Plancus. 47 BC. AR Denarius (3.53g, 18.1mm, 9h). Rome mint. Facing mask of Medusa, no serpents in hair / Aurora flying right conducting four horses of the sun. Crawford 453/1c; CRI 29a; Sydenham 959b; Plautia 14.

 

Ya, that's a coin that I could look at over and over again. But Doug's Medusa looks angrier!!