New to ancients

Ahrensdad

My son is 12 years old and interested in ancients. He started taking Latin in school last year which has spurred his interest. He is struggling with identification. I'm a US coin guy, and am totally clueless about ancients. I've bought him a few books, but we really haven't gotten off the mark yet.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Andrew

harasha

I began collecting ancient coins when I was about 12 years old. I first studied about this area by reading Ancient Coins; How to Collect for Fun and Profit," by Ted G. Wear. I continue to recommend it, over 50 years later. Collecting the Romans filled me with a desire to study Latin. Unfortunately, I was forced to take French and when I finally had a chance to choose, my school district cancelled the Latin course, due to lack of interest.
Finally managed to take 2 years of Latin, in college. I've branched out to other areas, but I still can't resist a coin of Gordian III. My first ancient was one of his antoniniani.

TitusFlavius

For a free online resource, try http://www.wildwinds.com/ . It has information on, and pictures of, a wide range of ancient coins, including Greek, Roman, and Byzantine. One thing that helps make identifying specific ancient coins easier is to develop a general knowledge of the different eras within each series (e.g. Classical vs. Hellenistic in the Greek series, Republican vs. Imperial in Romans). By learning the general characteristics of each time period, it helps with the process of elimination when trying to figure out an unknown ancient coin. Books like the one recommended by harasha can help a collector develop this general familiarity.

Hope your son ends up enjoying ancient numismatics. This forum is also a great resource, due to the knowledgeable members here. I'm sure there's plenty of help available here to help get him over the initial hurdles to pursuing this rewarding area of the hobby.

Ahrensdad

Thank you very much for sharing. I took him to the ANA in Rosemount last summer and let him loose in the ancients section of the show. The dealers were very nice and took a ton of time with him. He is really enjoying it so far.

291fifth

Concentrate on one area and learn it well. The ancients field is very wide and and very interesting but can easily overwhelm the new collector.

Dreamcrusher

There is an Ancient Coin Project sponsored by the ANA in which he can earn some really neat ancient coins. He will need to become a member but it is well worth it. The ANA has several other programs that should interest him. Here is a link to the Ancient Coin Program: https://www.money.org/young-numismatists/coin-education/ancient-coin-project

EVillageProwler

My coin club had a presentation last night about Hadrian’s travels; the presenter is an industry expert of a major USA-based firm. I’m mentioning this because another resource is online lot descriptions from industry experts.

These resources are free, easily available and usually filled with accurate information and related trivia.

Good luck with this; it should be a great experience with your son.

EVP