Unwanted Advice for new Ancient coin collectors

More than one recent post here has brought up a problem I see for those who want to get into collecting ancient coins in a small way. Many beginners seem attracted to coins that are hard to read and identify for intermediate level collectors (experts are hard to find). This is making life hard for them compared to starting by purchasing legible coins that came identified by the seller. I know there is a desire to buy coins cheaply but some sellers are offering unidentifiable slugs as typical of what you get for being 2000 years old. That is not the case. Fully identifiable ancient coins start well under $20. I did a search on one major selling venue and found over 1000 fully identified and genuine Roman coins for under $20. It is not necessary to buy mystery metal to afford entry into the hobby. It is rather like buying a buffalo nickel identifiable as 1913 by the shape of the mound on the reverse which sells for the same price as an EF common date. Certainly there is a place for collecting these coin ghosts but I suggest you leave the thrill of that chase for a time after you have learned the ropes on coins with some details. I appreciate the interest people have in uncleaned ancients and the thrill of discovery that comes with being the first to see a coin surface in over a thousand years. What I am suggesting is that this is not the way to start in the hobby. There are many sources of ancient coins; the things are not rare. It is not necessary to spend hundreds to get a pretty coin.

Who agrees or disagrees?

 

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Unwanted Advice for new Ancient coin collectors


Then i shalln't give you any....

 

I agree(sorta, its kinda fun trying to i.d. some coins, that is until you cant i.d.them lol) and yeah you can find great coins, for under $20 with great detail and legible inscriptions.


heres a couple examples

The Constantine I got for a lil over $8 i think. (pics a bit fuzzy, sorry)


The silver, Gordian III

I got for a lil under $40




heres a topic with Romans for less teh $10. Some are a bit worn, many are in great condiotion.

http://www.cointalk.com/t67781-3/

 

The word you're looking for is "shan't"

 

I think I agree :high5:

Q

 

What dey sezzzz. Traci :goofer:

 

I think that is good advice. In fact, I will add a little to it and say that it would be better to start with ancients that are easy to read and ID, that way, when you do move into unattributed coins, you will be more familiar with how they did things, and perhaps even familiar enough to figure them out with ease, due to the other knowledge you've collected.

However, I would not say don't pass up unattributed coinages completely. If you see them, like them and the price is right...get them...because you never know when you will see them again, and lurking under the centuries of dirt may be some new discovery...

I say this, as of my 4 ancients 3 came attributed and one is not. Of those four, I would have been able to figure out the subject of two of them, but not the denomination...that still confuses me!

 

It is good advice.

Still unwanted, though. A bit like "you should wait until you are married before you..."

Although I read something similar on your much apreciated coin site years ago, I still ended up buying hundreds of slugs........ (DUH)

Still, I had fun with them, and learned a lot. That's the point, isn't it?

 

Indeed

 

It's funny. I've been thinking about starting an ancient collection. And I've been stalling, based on the assumption that all the easily identified coins would be out of my $10-20 price range. The other thing is i don't really know what I want to collect. But if i can get some of the action for $10, not only can I minimize my risk of getting burnt with a fake but i can pick stuff up that looks cool until I figure out what i want to collect. I know i should buy the book before the coin, but I don't want to buy five or six books with coins that don't interest me. So once I spend a few bucks and get a feel for what interests ill get the book, and really start collecting.

 

For your budget check out the pick bin on site below

Roman
http://bargainbinancients.com/zen/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=25

Greek
http://bargainbinancients.com/zen/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=27

Its a start..

 

Ardy spanked me good back in the day. Two year old thread?

 

Still good advice. I made the mistake of doing uncleaned coins starting in ancients, made it much harder. I would also advise getting fewer, readable and identified, (or at least readable), coins to start. I am glad I bought my uncleaned coins back when there was better stuff in there, but would not advise anyone following my path.

As adice for Hamhock, once you get an idea of what you want to collect, I would seriously advise you getting the Sears book covering them, unless you are going a little more esoteric. You can always ask for advice here, as I am known as an ancient coin book nerd, but there are others more knowledgable than I as well.

Chris

 

And I still will! Gotta keep you in line.

 

No time at all for a 2000 yr old coin.

 

when collecting ancients it is essential that the coin can be identified as some unscrupulous people over here in europe have artificially aged bits of metal and try to pass them off as ancient coins. as a coin collector i collect coins that can be catalogued and identified if i wanted unidentifiable lumps of metal i'd go to a junk yard.......the best advice i can give is to always use reputable ancient coin dealers who also have a passion for the things they sell, if anyone wants to collect celtic coins then look no further than cgb in paris or chris rudd in the uk.

 

Let me echo what others have said...perhaps this was "unwanted advice" two years ago, but it's providing a VALUABLE education now.

I'd been considering picking up 1-2 ancients just for their "Hey neat, over 2000 years old" gee whiz factor, but as others have said, figured it would be prohibitively expensive to acquire any examples worthy of discussion. I see now how terribly wrong that presumption was.

 

Well this is good to know actually. I wasn't sure if people actively collected these ancient coins. I had a few given to me by a Priest. I guess they was donated in with some other stuff and they just set in a drawer in his parish for 50+ years so he gave them to me.
One has Hercules on it with a club and an apple on a pillar and the other is a guys head. probably an emperor. I'll scan them if anyone would like to see them in the appropriate thread of course!

 

Certainly. I'd also like to know what sort of envelopes/containers they spent the last 50 years in. It might be educational in coin preservation.