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<p>[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 3536896, member: 72790"]If I may offer some advice. If you acquire a coin try to make it one of a person who is very well known and written about in history. Then read a book about that person. Your coin will become much more important to you when you realize that you may be holding a coin that was actually handled by a person in your book. Even if not that, remember that your coin is the tangible, physical link to the time period and person you are reading about. Constantine, as suggested above, would be a good Roman figure to both collect and read about. His coins are common and he is famous. Don't go for rare personages, like, say the emperors Pertinax or Nerva. Their coins are not cheap, even in wretched condition and there's little to read about them. Also get a good book on ancient coins. I suggest David Sears books. His earlier editions are priced pretty cheaply on the used book market. Above all, make sure to read this forum every day. You will learn more here than anywhere else. When you have saved up a few bucks go to a coin show with ancients dealers in attendance. If you go to one and none is there ask every dealer there if he has any ancients in his surprise junk box. Don't spend too much there but then come home and try to figure out what you bought and where it will fit into your collection. Good luck and be sure to show us what Fortuna and the Fates bring your way. PS I started collecting when I was in 9th grade, age 14 in 1957. I still have my first coin, an 1865 US three cent piece and the 1957 Yeoman Blue Book on coin values. I credit my hobby with giving me an insight into economics and finances that few other of my fellow teachers ever had.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 3536896, member: 72790"]If I may offer some advice. If you acquire a coin try to make it one of a person who is very well known and written about in history. Then read a book about that person. Your coin will become much more important to you when you realize that you may be holding a coin that was actually handled by a person in your book. Even if not that, remember that your coin is the tangible, physical link to the time period and person you are reading about. Constantine, as suggested above, would be a good Roman figure to both collect and read about. His coins are common and he is famous. Don't go for rare personages, like, say the emperors Pertinax or Nerva. Their coins are not cheap, even in wretched condition and there's little to read about them. Also get a good book on ancient coins. I suggest David Sears books. His earlier editions are priced pretty cheaply on the used book market. Above all, make sure to read this forum every day. You will learn more here than anywhere else. When you have saved up a few bucks go to a coin show with ancients dealers in attendance. If you go to one and none is there ask every dealer there if he has any ancients in his surprise junk box. Don't spend too much there but then come home and try to figure out what you bought and where it will fit into your collection. Good luck and be sure to show us what Fortuna and the Fates bring your way. PS I started collecting when I was in 9th grade, age 14 in 1957. I still have my first coin, an 1865 US three cent piece and the 1957 Yeoman Blue Book on coin values. I credit my hobby with giving me an insight into economics and finances that few other of my fellow teachers ever had.[/QUOTE]
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