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<p>[QUOTE="Jfp7375, post: 8346070, member: 138789"]Hi Everyone --</p><p><br /></p><p>I am a total beginner in ancient coins and am, for now, primarily interested in Roman coins. Like many others, I was initially drawn in through my interest in history and the intrigue of possessing these cool little artifacts.</p><p><br /></p><p>So far I've acquired a few coins:</p><ol> <li>Cointalk's very own Victor_Clark sent me a mixed lot of about 20 coins, mostly late Roman stuff from 250-360AD, spanning 6-8 emperors, mostly Constantinians. What an incredibly generous guy. I've now gotten to see a variety of emperors, prevalent reverses, and mint locations. I've already made a good effort at attributing about 15 of the 20 coins and looking forward to the rest - I think only 2 or 3 are beyond my skill as of now. Thanks Victor!</li> <li>I also bought a lot of about 11 uncleaned coins on eBay which, predictably, is going "just ok". I was pretty discriminating about picking out a seller and just wanted some cheap ones to experiment with. They are mostly smaller coins, some heavily encrusted, and my best prediction as of now is that only 2-4 of the 11 will show any significant detail. I've only been soaking in distilled water for 2 days, gently brushing intermittently, so we will see what I get.</li> </ol><p>My question is: what next?</p><p><br /></p><p>I so enjoy the attribution, learning about different emperors and the history, and am still intrigued by cleaning coins as well. Most times on this site, I see people strongly recommend buying quality coins instead. But to me, the mystery and learning process is a huge part of the appeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>But I don't want to waste a lot of money or time either. I am open to shelling out some money for quality coins, but can't help but feel a little lost. I think I still know so little that the satisfaction of a more premium quality, rarer coin relative to a cheaper one is still lost on me. I'm not sure how fun it would be for me to just drop $20 here, $50 there and complete sets or the like.</p><p><br /></p><p>Does anyone have a view on this? Any recommendations? Anyone know dealers that sell cheap but decent quality lots (such as the one Victor generously sent me), or higher quality uncleaned coins, so I can just see more coins? Would love to see a sampling of earlier roman coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a bonus, here is the very first coin I ever attributed from the lot Victor sent - common but pretty nice detail especially on the reverse right?</p><p><img src="https://imgur.com/WDiuIl2" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WDiuIl2.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Bronze AE3 of Constantine I, ~3.53 grams, ~18.0mm, Obverse Legend: CONSTAN TINVS AVG; Obverse descrip.: Laureate bust facing right; Reverse Legend: PROVIDEN-TIAE AVGG; Reverse descrip: Campgate, 2 turrets, 10-11 Layers, 1 star, no doors. Mintmark: BSIS double crescent. Struck 328-329 AD in Siscia. Reference: RIC VII Siscia 214</p><p><br /></p><p>The format of my attribution is probably garbage but pretty confident it's accurate[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Jfp7375, post: 8346070, member: 138789"]Hi Everyone -- I am a total beginner in ancient coins and am, for now, primarily interested in Roman coins. Like many others, I was initially drawn in through my interest in history and the intrigue of possessing these cool little artifacts. So far I've acquired a few coins: [LIST=1] [*]Cointalk's very own Victor_Clark sent me a mixed lot of about 20 coins, mostly late Roman stuff from 250-360AD, spanning 6-8 emperors, mostly Constantinians. What an incredibly generous guy. I've now gotten to see a variety of emperors, prevalent reverses, and mint locations. I've already made a good effort at attributing about 15 of the 20 coins and looking forward to the rest - I think only 2 or 3 are beyond my skill as of now. Thanks Victor! [*]I also bought a lot of about 11 uncleaned coins on eBay which, predictably, is going "just ok". I was pretty discriminating about picking out a seller and just wanted some cheap ones to experiment with. They are mostly smaller coins, some heavily encrusted, and my best prediction as of now is that only 2-4 of the 11 will show any significant detail. I've only been soaking in distilled water for 2 days, gently brushing intermittently, so we will see what I get. [/LIST] My question is: what next? I so enjoy the attribution, learning about different emperors and the history, and am still intrigued by cleaning coins as well. Most times on this site, I see people strongly recommend buying quality coins instead. But to me, the mystery and learning process is a huge part of the appeal. But I don't want to waste a lot of money or time either. I am open to shelling out some money for quality coins, but can't help but feel a little lost. I think I still know so little that the satisfaction of a more premium quality, rarer coin relative to a cheaper one is still lost on me. I'm not sure how fun it would be for me to just drop $20 here, $50 there and complete sets or the like. Does anyone have a view on this? Any recommendations? Anyone know dealers that sell cheap but decent quality lots (such as the one Victor generously sent me), or higher quality uncleaned coins, so I can just see more coins? Would love to see a sampling of earlier roman coins. As a bonus, here is the very first coin I ever attributed from the lot Victor sent - common but pretty nice detail especially on the reverse right? [IMG]https://imgur.com/WDiuIl2[/IMG] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/WDiuIl2.png[/IMG] Bronze AE3 of Constantine I, ~3.53 grams, ~18.0mm, Obverse Legend: CONSTAN TINVS AVG; Obverse descrip.: Laureate bust facing right; Reverse Legend: PROVIDEN-TIAE AVGG; Reverse descrip: Campgate, 2 turrets, 10-11 Layers, 1 star, no doors. Mintmark: BSIS double crescent. Struck 328-329 AD in Siscia. Reference: RIC VII Siscia 214 The format of my attribution is probably garbage but pretty confident it's accurate[/QUOTE]
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