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Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 64943, member: 57463"]Citius, Altius, Fortius ... antiquius, inveterius, senectius Well, OK, you might just happen to have a coin from 1948 or whatever, but do you want to own anything older?  Looking in dealer junk boxes over the years (I live in the USA), I have found three half pennies from George III, one from 1780 or so, the time of the Revolution, so those are fairly historical -- though fairly is the right word, their being worn pretty flat, however with a nice patina. Again from junk boxes, I have a slew of 19th century European bronzes, the large 10 and 20 centime (centissimi) sizes similar to the U.K. half penny and penny, of which I have a couple, including Young Head Victorias. If you look and if you go to shows or shops regularly,  you can find something much older in the same series that you collect now, at least broadly. Then there are medievals and Romans.  Allen G. Berman wrote the book on Papal coinage and in his ads in The Celator, he sells medievals for under $10 each. Buy a bunch a get a free book on how to read medievals.  Without getting into rarities, you can own a nice silver Roman denarius from the Pax Romana for under $50.  Again, those ancient bargain boxes at the ANA convention are filled with coins from the Roman Military Anarchy, but if you sit and look, you can find Greek hellenistic bronze in the same $5 or $10 range -- and that pushes back the age of your oldest coin. (About the Title: I took the Olympic Motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger" and made a pun out of "Older, Older, Older."  An older object, to make something olde, an older man. I hope I got the grammar right.)[/QUOTE]

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