New to the Darkside, who wants to sell me coins?

mrdq

I've been thinking for a few years that I'd like a coin collection of one coin from each century going back as far as is possible. I may have posted here this desire in the past but now i'm ready to get started so:

1: What do I need to do to make sure they're not fake (other than don't buy the ones with COPY stamped into them)
2: Is there an Ancient coins for dummy's book?

A nice mix from around the world would be cool. I'm guessing that the oldest coins might be all Chinese but that's just a guess. I don't want to be into this for $100,000 but i'm no cheapskate either.

What else do I need to ponder?

STLNATS

Wayne Sayles has a number of good books on various ancient coin topics. Quite affordable and usually available on ebay or Amazon. Forum Ancient Coins has a great website with tons of great, well organized posts and may have info for newbies as well. It may seem intimidating at first glance, but after a few minutes you'll find its easy to navigate and use. Here's the link:

linky

Like everything else, there ain't no silver bullet and you need to pay your dues; the best way to be safe is to follow the trite but still valid old rules: 1. buy the book before the coin (and actually read the d*** thing!) and 2. buy from reliable dealers. I think the offerings on the Forum and VCoins are generally "safe." Ebay can be a great source if you know what you're doing, but can be a minefield for newbies and experienced folks alike.

mrdq

Thanks

Pokermandude

My first book on Ancient coins was Ancient Coin Collecting (v. I) and it did a pretty good job of speaking broadly about ancients, outlining the differences between collecting them vs. other coins along with tons of other good info.

PS- if you're interested in Canadian coins, shoot me a pm. Thanks.

tewcd

I think it's always worthwhile to do as much reading as possible before you get into this. And always, always, always, spend as much time as possible looking at each coin before you buy. Just like American coins, condition matters. Just because they're world coins, doesn't mean they can be of lesser quality (although some can!). I'm learning that the hard way, where I bought three lightside coins that, upon closer inspections, had small areas whizzed on each.

LochNESS

Krause cats get a bad wrap sometimes, but there's really a ton of great information in them including:

- brief history of each country
- rulers / government
- compositions, diameters, many mintages
- photos!

If you get the DVD version, it's a PDF, and you can search the pages easily (by typing Ctrl + F).

And, I just posted some great coins here with no reserves