Your First Ancient

I remember that show; I didn't know you were there, though (we hadn't met yet). I bought my first Nero sestertius (Roma, vf-ish but serious "Tiber patina") at that show for $80, a lot of money for a college student. I also bought a lovely vf Claudius /Libertas as, also for $80 (it was greatly smoothed, something I did not understand in my newby days); and, a nicely toned, vf Corinthian pegasus, also for $80 (seems like that was the going rate for EVERYTHING!). It was my first big coin show, and it had a number of good ancient dealers. I went three days in a row... ! BTW, AncientNut, did I buy that Caesar elephant from you? (I remember you were ratcheting your way up to some big $$ portrait sestertii back then, and sold some seriously nice RR denarii to get there; I ended up trading the elephant to Tom Cederlind, RIP, toward my first Caesar portrait denarius).

 

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Wait, so how does one buy / trade coins here? Because there are a couple of nice Roman didrachms I'd love to acquire!

 

I don't remember if it was you I sold it to, Eric, but I'm glad it helped you acquire your first Caesar portrait!

 

Eric:
Start by going to the "For Sale" forum under "Advertising" in the Forums list.

 

Thanks, Ancientnut! I need to look at the rest of the website (Irony: I am constantly telling my university students that they need to look at the class website before asking me questions... and then I usually tell them, "It's on the syllabus"!)

 

I've posted this story before on another forum. My first ancients were gifts to me from my Greek grandfather. I was a teenaged collector of U.S. coins, circa 1978, when my granfather gave me a small purse of old coins that belonged to my late grandmother. In the purse were several, late19th century modern Greek coins and a couple of odd, rough looking bronze coins. I took the odd ones to my local coin dealer who recognized them as ancient. He gave them to a collector who identified them for me - an AE antoninianus of Valerian I and an AE antoninianus of Trebonianus Gallus. I immediately bought RSC vol III and was forever hooked. My grandmother's parents came to the U.S from Greece in 1906, so I've assumed that these were field finds in the old country!

 

I dont think Fouree and I dont think fake. I think debased to copper!

 

Really? Azes II debased his drachm as well?

 

There are many things we would like to know better. Some do not accept that Azes I and II were different people. Some coins are better silver than others. We do not know if the differences are denominations or date. Many people have theories on many things. Some will be thought to be correct in another generation; some will not. That is up to you.
http://coinindia.com/galleries-azes2.html

 

My only Azes coins are larger than drachms. We call the silver one a tetradrachm and the AE one AE26 but I have no idea what Azes called them.

Mitchiner, Ancient and Classical World has a dozen pages of Azes coins from several mints. My silver one shows what we call Poseidon on the reverse. There are several others. I have not studied them to any degree but suspect a person could devote their life to trying to increase what we know and separate out what we only think we know. It is fine to copy ID's from sales listings and books but always keep in mind that future scholars may ask you to changes some labels now and then.

 

My first ancient which was bought for entirely egocentric reasons. When your name is Martin and your are named after the Roman god of war what choice is there but to buy a Mars coin. I was collecting Anglo Saxon pennies at the time and had never looked at ancients. I saw this on a printed list (back in the day when all we had to go on was a printed list without photos) and it was affordable. I have collected ancients ever since.

I still have it and it is still one of my favourites.

Severus Alexander denarius

Obv:– IMP ALEXANDER PIVS AVG, Laureate head right
Rev:– MARS VLTOR, Mars advancing right, holding a spear and shield
Minted in Rome, A.D. 232
References:– RIC 246, RSC 161a

 

I post my syllabi online. I would be very surprised if half of my students bothered to download it.

 

Awesome story! Sorry for your loss.

 

@Orfew: didn't know you are a teacher. University / College level? If so, we have something more in common than a love of coins! (not that I want to hijack the thread with kvetching about students!)