~ draft

lordmarcovan

Again, thanks for the gracious response. The websites you directed me to are full of great looking stuff. From what you said about getting some of your earlier stuff slabbed, I take it that you buy raw and slabbed foreigns and ancients?

With ancients, I prefer to buy the coins raw and slab them myself. There are a few dealers who sell nice ancients already slabbed, but you'll usually pay a hefty premium for them. Slabbing has not really caught on much with ancients, since the people who collect ancient coins, much like those who are devotees of Early American Coppers (the EAC folk) are rather traditionalist and anti-slab in their stance. Pretty much any other time, I like to buy the coins already slabbed, since it saves money, but a major consideration for me is the availability of nice images, since I am a poor to mediocre coin photographer myself. This is why I always use the TrueView service. That now comes included when you go Secure Plus at PCGS (which is required anyway for world coins). With ancients, you have to go with NGC, and I don't like how the white prongs of the NGC holders intrude into any post-slab images of the coin, so there's another reason to buy raw (with good images) and then submit.

I'm guessing you would suggest I buy from people I trust if I'm buying uncertified material? Do you buy overseas? If so, are their major issues with shipping? Also, if you don't mind, I would like to know which dealers you trust. As I look around more, I see more interesting stuff. Always have been a history buff and this fits in well.

Definitely you should go with a trusted dealer when you're entering into a new arena (if not always, as a matter of course). All of the VCoins dealers have a published code of ethics they have to adhere to, so you ought to be able to trust them. Civitas is, as mentioned, a forum member who may be of help to you, is recommended by me, and is also a VCoins dealer. I have bought a lot from Steve McBride of Incitatus Coins on VCoins. He has nice prices, but the coin will not come with any paperwork or informative flip inserts- they'll just be in a blank flip or a holder with a brief scrawled inscription. FORVM Ancient Coins, whose site I linked you to, is a good place to buy. Their site is loaded with resources, and the coins come with nicely printed flips with lots of information about the coin itself as well as the ruler and/or historical context. Good place to buy if you're a novice collector of ancients. Marc Breitsprecher of Ancient Imports on VCoins is good, too. Really I have not had a bad experience with anyone on VCoins. Now, you must understand that buying raw ancients does not in any way guarantee what NGC will say about them when you submit them. If they refuse to slab a coin for "authenticity unverifiable" (it happens- and does not automatically mean the coin is fake- just that NGC can't verify it), a VCoins dealer will almost certainly refund your money. But as far as grading goes, well- you never know when submitting stuff. You probably already knew this if you've submitted any of your Morgans. I personally don't really worry so much about technical grade on ancients anyway, as long as the coin slabs, and the eye appeal is there. If it grades high, great. If not, so what.



If you're shopping around and you see something that appeals to you, feel fee to run it by me and I'll give you my honest assessment. I do this with my major purchases. That's the nice thing about the forums. I have a couple of forum friends I'll "test out" my purchases on and get an opinion from before I buy.

I have a full registry set of Morgan dollars(Regan's Morgan Dollars--named after my daughter...) as well as some decent type stuff. I am a cheapskate with coins. My brain tells me that the better quality is the way to go. Most of my stuff would be considered dreck. There is just something in my brain that makes me rather walk into a coin shop with a 100 dollar bill and buy 5 $20 coins instead of a decent $100 coin. I think the "box of 20" idea may help me discipline myself to be a little more quality focused and less quantity.

I don't know about you, but the "Box of 20" strategy has certainly improved the quality of MY collection. I'm finding I enjoy having 20 "nice" coins (as nice as can be had on my limited budget, anyway) more than having 100-200 "OK" coins. The Box of 20 is my primary collection, now, so I'm reasonably picky with it. I usually will have one or two sideline collections going, which I'm less picky about. (Currently this is my "Oddball Set".) Since additions to the Box of 20 set now happen less frequently due to the average price level I've reached there, I'll add to my secondary collection(s) when I have less to spend. Often I'll work on a secondary set for 1-5 years and then sell it when it's reasonably complete, and use the money to roll into the primary "Box of 20" set. This is how I could afford to add stuff like that $2,300 Dahlonega half-eagle, which under normal circumstances I could NEVER have shelled out in a lump sum. I sold an entire other collection to buy that one coin! So by having a cheaper sideline or two, you can work up to your primary set over time. Unless of course you have the discipline to just save up money the traditional way, and not spend it until you've reached your goal amount. (I'm not that disciplined.)

I never seriously considered buying the ancient/foreign coins; however, it seems that if you learn a bit and are patient and prudent(not claiming to have large amounts of either)that you can collect some cool stuff and possibly get more bang for your buck than chasing our coins. Just a thought. My kids and wife will not go hungry regardless.

You will get a LOT more bang for the buck on the Darkside! And learn more history, too. US coins are great, and there's no reason you have to drop them entirely, but if you broaden your horizons, you'll not regret it.



And it's good you've got your priorities straight as far as family goes, of course. Another reason I've got such a small coin budget is that very little of it comes out of my regular paycheck, which goes to my wife and daughter. I have built that set by gradually "flipping" coins. All my coin money comes from selling other coins. Here the ever-rotating nature of the Box of 20 works well, too. If you have a freestyle, eclectic collection like mine, you can add and subtract more easily without messing up any predetermined "structure".



I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with the Box of 20 idea.



When you start out, it might be all Morgan dollars, or US Type, if that's what you have on hand. Nothin' wrong with that. Then over time, you can mix it up a bit.



For a long time, my Box of 20 was a bit "Roman heavy" because I broke up my old 12 Caesars Roman collection two years ago, sold/swapped some of the nicer pieces (which is how I got that Aethelred II penny), and kept the rest as B20 coins for a while, until they gradually got shuffled out. Of course I've since added other Romans. Roman coins are fun in that they're collectible by emperor (as in the Twelve Caesars thing), and the history is appealing. With Greek coins, the history is often a bit cloudier or more difficult to learn, but the artistry on the coins is superior. Medieval and Dark Age coins tend to be much cruder than their ancient predecessors (at least until the Renaissance came along), but still have very fascinating histories.