Young Collector

You can find all those coins for $20-$30 in XF grade, and even less for VF and F examples. These are common rulers, and many of their coins even in XF can be easily found for little money.

And as far as the Islamic silver coins pictured, one of them I got for $30 despite being a 9th century silver coin, and this 2,300 to 2,400 year old Greek silver obol below I got for $45. I even have some Roman Imperial silver coins I've gotten from $45-$65 featuring well known Emperors like Caracalla, Philip I, Gordian III, etc.

Just because some coins are ancient, it doesn't make them expensive. All the prices quoted below are from purchases I made this year (2016). All are ancient silver, and much rarer than most US silver coins you routinely see people paying hundreds of dollars for.


Masailles obol (4rth century BC) Paid $45.


Alexander Severus denarius, paid $54 including auction house fees and shipping.


Caracalla denarius, paid $62 including auction house fees and shipping. I'll admit I expected to pay $75 for this one, but I guess bidders were distracted by other coins and I got it at a very good price

Philip I antoninianus, paid $52 including shipping and auction fees.

 

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They are cool but I am more in to Franklin half's and walk liberties

 

Got it, but I was replying to @MKent in the post above.

@icollectoldmoney You should feel free to collect whatever you want. I started out with U.S. and world coins, moved on to paper money, returned to U.S. coins, and finally decided to focus exclusively on ancient/medieval silver coins. Part of the journey is trying out different things and seeing what it is that you like, and you never know where the journey will take you. A decade down the line you may decide to focus on Mexican silver coins, or British Empire coins, or ancients, or even a narrow subset of American coins such as collecting large cents, etc. You have to figure that out for yourself by trial and error. Collect everything now, keep an open mind, and see what ends up interesting you the most down the line.

 

Well I thank everybody help and I will update as my collecting adventure grows and let's me explore new ideas.

 

Thats really unfortunate... Thankfully I've not experience that yet, but I don't have too many coins, one of each for now. How long did it took to get spotted from purchase?

 

Unslabbed ancient coins scares me... What if they're fake and I couldn't spot them?

 

And above all else...don't waste your money on those naughty college girls like I did!

 

When I first started I was interested in bullion silver - ungraded. Then I moved into Franklins and Peace dollars until I discovered military trade tokens. That is a huge passion of mine. Then I got into ancients and haven't looked back.

 

As a current college student (one more year...) on a budget it's possible to have enough money and spend on coins. It just requires work, sacrifice and smart management. I've worked my butt off and I'll be able to graduate debt free and I've still acquired a nice collection during my college years.

 

Most ancient collectors don't like slabs. In ancients you have to learn a little about the coins your interested in and buy from reputable dealers. Also note that NGC does not guarantee authenticity of any of it's slabbed ancients.

 

Well hope I have great experiences as years go on with collecting and research.

 

Really? I thought authenticity test was part of their grading process. What about PCGS?

 

Not for their ancients. PCGS does not authenticate or grade ancients. It's really not so scary. Buy from reputable dealers who offer lifetime guarantees and you'll do fine!

You can always ask the forum if you have questions.

 

I will, thanks.

 

First of all, unslabbed is the way to go. Take a $20 Late Roman bronze and stick it in a slab and the dealer is going to ask for $50 instead (to cover slabbing fees, shipping, etc). Other sites that don't specialize in ancients, but rather on slabbed coins in general, will ask you for $75-$100 for that same coin (up to an 80% markup just for plastic).

Edited: Will PM you list of dealers

 

Part of collecting is learning to spot fakes and learning to grade accurately. That goes for all coins, from ancients to U.S. Please don't fall into a false sense of security about the authenticity of those slabbed U.S. coins, they are faking slabbed coins now too.

 

I have several. Liberty is my favorite coin even though the ancients are my current affair. I have all Silver Eagles from 1986 to now. At least 2 or 3 each year some years more than 6. Few are slabbed, the ironic thing is the 1 with spots is slabbed. Bought it at 1st release. When I put it away it was clean. Three or so months later I took it out & discovered the spots.
My point I'm trying to get across is, just because the coin is in a slab it's not 100% protected.

 

Yea after the responses on this thread, i'm beginning to question my obsession with slabs. They are easier to sell online that's for sure.

 

It was hard to break out of that mindset. If you focus on US only, you are programmed to only trust slabs from PCGS and NGC. However, foreign collectors probably laugh at us for that, and serious ancient collectors definitely do.

I have five primary issues with NGC slabbed ancients

1. Slabs leave out very important and vital information such as description/translation of coin legends, and basic attribution of the symbols, objects, and deities in the coin, so anyone who is not knowledgeable on those coins will not get the benefit of the vital information needed to properly understand the meaning and historical or cultural context of these coins.

2. NGC sometimes misatributes ancients entirely. Nothing more embarrassing than to buy a coin you think belongs to Emperor Philip I only to be told by collectors that you actually bought Philip II and the NGC description is wrong.

3. NGC does not add catalog references to the coin labels, so you can't easily reference your coins against catalogs of ancient coins (to check date and ID of the coin is accurate).

4. NGC overgrades ancients by a mile. What they call AU may be a VF at best, and sometimes they give out ridiculous strike and surface gradings that are way too generous for the condition, centering, and strike quality of the coin. Meaning you'll probably overpay for a slabbed ancient because the grading is too high for what it is.

5. NGC makes up hoard names like "Colosseum hoard" for marketing purposes. None of these "hoard" names are backed by scholarly research and are just cheap marketing ploys to get new collectors to overpay.

 

You've admitted to being a new collector, so please do keep in mind your tastes are almost certainly going to change down the road. It could be a month, a year, ten years, etc, but they'll change. You may need to be even more mindful of this due to the fact you have no real bills/expenses and a fair amount of disposable income. Unfortunately, if you're not, you very well may learn the hard way how easy it is to bury yourself and/or at least lose money in this hobby. Point is be careful and make only well thought out intelligent purchasing decisions. Good luck to you.