How many people here collect ancient coins?

Aethelred

I am wondering how many people here collect ancient coins and what area(s) you collect.

Bailathacl

I collect 'em, kinda addictive too. I'm down to about 7 achievable Roman Imperial portait coins, and need about the same in achievable Byzantine Empire coins (which sort of bridges the ancient to the medieval). I've also started in with a handful of Roman Republic, Roman Imperatorial, Greek, Ptolemaic, Indo-Persian and the like. Focus? Who needs focus?

wybrit

By moving just one word in your question, an almost equally interesting question can be constructed: how many ancient people here collect coins?

I know that ajaan and maccrimmon do.

Aethelred

<< <i>By moving just one word in your question, an almost equally interesting question can be constructed: how many ancient people here collect coins?

I know that ajaan and maccrimmon do. >>



I have not been active on the forum in quite a while. During the time I have been gone I see that you have become quite good at derailing threads and doing it very quickly I might add. This used to be Ajaan's area of expertise, but I see that you are giving the Shroom a run for his money Mr. Wybrit.

wybrit

BTW, good to see you posting here again.

ajaan

You guys mind if I join this hijacking?

wybrit

Ah no, there goes the neighborhood.

ajaan

I'm in a very blond mood today.

I have a few Ancient coins. Mainly Roman Imperial. I like the Alex the Great tets myself. Wybrit, read that closely, I said TETs.

JZrarities

1) Ancient Greek, primarily the larger silvers
Trying to form a type collection of the city-states...
Also the Greek Kings from Alexander onward

2) The Roman 12 Caesars
Primarily silver but a couple of aureus...

BigAlan

I did til my eyes went bad.

Bjorn

I do ... that and Medieval. I would like to focus on ancient Greek coins, but due to the high prices I have concentrated on Imperial denarii and antoninii.

stainless

MEEEE


My Coins...needs to updated though...about 9 more need to be added




stainless

STLNATS

Been collecting ancients since college, so I guess that means I'm becoming ancient too. Several areas of "specialty" in addition to a general roman emperor set and the odd nifty looking coin:

1. AE large folles of RIC VI, AD 294-313. I use RIC as a checklist with a strong interest in the Carthage and central mints and non-Genio reverse types and fracionals. I collected these almost exclusively (with the papal coins) from the late 1970s to 1989 when I shifted my interest to US national currency. Started up again in the late 1990s and found a lot of previously unobtainable types were on the market.
2. An almost complete Parthian "King set"
3. About 50% done on a similar Bactrian/indogreek King set

What fun.

SaorAlba

I collect Syracuse, Sicily, and Black Sea area coins from Pantikapaion, Phanagoria, Olbia, Chersonesus, and Tyras - the latter five all from what is now Ukraine.

ProofArtworkonCircs

I have a few Greek and Roman ancients.

Sapyx

I consider my ancient and mediaeval coins to simply be a logical extension of my "one from every country" collection.

As a result, I'll collect "everything" ancient. Greek, Roman, Celtic, Byzantine, Chinese, Indian, Axumite... it's all good.

500Bay

I do. Mostly Roman Imperial, especially the 12 Caesars.

coinkat

A CNG auction catalog is enough to promote the interest... I would really enjoy collecting ancients but a man knows to know his limitations. I just am not able to collect everything.

I am feeling better that I was omitted by Wybrit as being ancient...

determined

I've been reading, and fascinated by, ancient history for most of my 50 years. So naturally ancients have been my main collecting interest. It's only been in the last few years that I've also started collecting world and US coins. Alexander the Great and his Successors are a major focus. But I also collect a lot of other ancient Greek, some Roman and other miscellaneous ancients. Actually I will collect any ancient that has historic interest.

Here's one favorite of mine. A lifetime Alexander the Great tetradrachm, Babylon mint, 17.01g.

Note that it does not have the title Basileos, or King, on this coin.The addition of Basileos to ATG's coins came later in the issues. Some think that the Basileos title was added by Alexander to his coins during his later megalomanic, "Call me a god" phase. In fact, there is reason to believe that Basileos may have been added to the coins to signify that it is a coin of his son, Alexander IV, who initially shared the kingship with ATG's half-brother Philip III, after ATG died. (But in their grab for power the Successors took care of both of them.)


Martin Price dates this coin from 325 - 323 BC. (Although I still think it could be from a year or two earlier.) Price puts the Babylon coins of 325 - 323 BC in his "Group II". This Group II was a huge issue over a relatively short period of time. The probable reason for this large amount of coinage was for the back pay of the soldiers when they came back from India.

Sorry for the rambling. But I'm enthusiastic about the subject!

BillyKingsley

I would like to but I am totally clueless when it comes to them. I can't decipher them for the most part. (I am actually considering trying to teach myself Latin so I can read coins)

I do have two Roman coins, however, and they are two of my favorites!

SaorAlba

About as ancient as they go for monetary objects, these are from here in Ukraine, south in Olbia which was just north of the Crimean peninsula. Even Roman coins turn up frequently in Crimea still.

mojorizn

I"ve been collecting coins from the sons of Constantine to the end of Empire with an emphasis on the mints of the west. I also want to start assembling a collection of the hemidrachms of the chersonesos "lion" type but want to find a good reference first.

Mojo

covers

message deleted

Weiss

I'm fascinated by the dawn of coinage and what it meant to the development of us as the modern humans we've become.

I've got a few ancients in my collection, but only two that really matter: my icon a Lydian trite from about 600 BCE, and its offspring, the Lydian siglos from about 550 BCE.

The trite is arguably the first coin ever made, the siglos the first pure silver coin from the first bi-metallic coin system.