Gallienus

On 3/22/2024 at 10:44 AM, kirispupis said:

 

Here are some other tiny favorites.

Cimmerian Bosporos, Myrmekion
Circa 470-460 BCE
AR Tetartemorion 5 mm, 0.22 g
Ant seen from above.
Rev. Quadripartite incuse square, pellets in two opposing compartments.
HGC 7, 54. MacDonald 6

 

 

Looks like a carpenter ant to me.  Possibly life sized.  Little did it know that it'd get immortalized for the next 2,500 years!

I got this as I like late Roman and try to illustrate the end of things. 

The "penultimate Western Roman Emperor: Julius Nepos 1st reign, 474-475 AD.

gold tremissis, direct purchase from Ed Waddell

In a later auction, I tried to buy a tremissis of Romulus Augustus (475? - 476 AD). I bid sort-of low as it had scratches on both sides but was outbid.  Anyhow at a 1/3 of a soldidus, a tremissis is a small coin.

On 5/22/2023 at 1:11 PM, Valentinian said:

Some of us are relatively new to collecting ancient coins, and others of us have been at it for many years. Maybe you think ancient coin prices have gone up a lot and wish you were collecting long ago, but you are actually--right now--in the golden age for collecting ancient coins. For some of why that's true, look at my description of what collecting was like for me in the "old days" before the internet. 
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/olddays.html

If you've been collecting since before the internet, I'd love to hear your thoughts about collecting in the old days and how collecting has changed. 

 

Very interesting topic.  I started collecting Ancients as far back as around 1974 but was very limited in budget back then.  I've tried to join this forum but the security check doesn't seem to be working. There it goes: I seem to have gotten in.

I tended to go to one coin store in my neighborhood which was not very helpful.  They were selling Roman denarii for $3 ea I recall but I was uncertain whether to buy any so I didn't.  Later I came back to the store and the silver was all bought but they had some bronzes of the Constantine period and perhaps of the Tetrarchy, running about $1.50 each.  I went wild and spent around $7.50 total, these were my 1st ancients.

 In the late 70's, when I was in college, I began to correspond with an advanced collector/ dealer: Frank S.? Robinson of New York.  He wrote to me about Roman sestersii and other issues. After college I wasn't so interested in Anceints but began to collect US type coins: like Bust Halves and Liberty Seated Halves.  But I was priced out of the rapidly rising US market at the time.

Went to grad school and after that I began to collect US type, Ancients and some World.  I lost interest in Ancients and sold a portion of my collection.  Around 1998 I got married and sold most of my US collection to help buy a house.  The US market was pretty strong and I thought World or foreign was a much better value.  I'd show coins to whoever came to visit us and people wanted me to do talks on Ancient Coins.  

To help my collection for displays and talks, I began to collect Ancients and World more seriously.  Today I present to ten 6th-grade classes every year at a local high school.  When they get to the Greek and Roman part of their history courses, I do a talk & coin presentation on "Ancient Civilizations as Shown by Coins".  I'll try to post some pix.

A Roman Coin I use as an avatar