Starting a collection - HELP

[seth77]

Everyone has been giving great advices so you are now probably ready to start. I'll just add some things that I wish someone had told me when I started with numismatics:

- when you start you might want to both keep it on the cheap side but also as diverse as available -- so no Greek or LRB but Greek AND LRB; and perhaps some denarii, some provincials, some "barbaric" imitations, some Eastern Empire (Byzantine), but not just the early readable ones but also the scyphate and not only the 12 century but the Latin Empire, Nicaea, Thessalonica, etc from the 13th century; some Cilician Armenians are readily available all the time; some medieval billon, perhaps local Spanish medieval, which again are very available and some French feudal, especially from Languedoc, which you will certainly find in the inventory of local sellers.

- do not rush to buy; stretch those 900EUR as long as possible so you can gather as much experience as possible with as little a cost as possible; at this entry level the numismatic market really is a buyer's market, which means that you will always find something better later if you don't rush.

- don't be greedy and don't presuppose - you might find yourself at ca. 6months into this hobby thinking "well I am now versed enough to hunt for bargain Alexander the Great silver on ebay" : don't do it.

- get some books, preferably as scientific as possible right from the get-go, you will need them; ask for them at museums, book shows, coin shows, thrift stores/used book shops (I'm not sure how those are called in Spain); I'm going to tell you how I picked my starters books: I followed the area that interested me on acsearch or on forums and picked up on the references used, then I looked for them on google to see which is available on the regular. So you buy that and then, after a while, you will start using the books that you own as resource to get to more books by checking their bibliography and the footnotes. You go look for them and then repeat.

- once you are confident enough on a main theme or focus, books (catalogs, etc) will not be enough, so you will go after periodicals and specific articles that cover in depth a particular small aspect that is important for your focus; which means you will browse more places like academia.edu or jstor (or in your case in Spain OMNI or Hecate) and you will spend money on particular issues of numismatic periodicals that are available physically.

- others have indicated where to buy and to some extent what to buy, perhaps you could also use the experience of joining a local club that shares, even broadly, your interests; it'll help you gain access to more knowledge faster and very likely to handle coins without buying/owning them, which will in turn help you save money by not pursuing examples of what does not appeal to you; plus, older members have older books, to which you might get access without actually buying the book. Remember that numismatic books are usually expensive.

Bottom line I think is that the most important thing that you will (and should expect to) get from numismatics is knowledge and the thrill of uncovering obscure historical facts and characters, which in time will develop into fresh connections and a new understanding of how things function and used to function in the day to day trade but not only. Coins are also small documents that require attention and time invested, and in turn they will change your perspective on lots of things, from your view on economics to how to handle your finances better and/or how to better understand the social developments of a given society.

[expat]

@seth77 thank you for your time composing this reply. I have a local coin shop who unfortunately only stocks items back to late medieval period. But he has customers who are always looking to offload old numismatic literature. I have asked him to inquire specifically regarding ancient coinage. Also to make my name known as someone who would like to join any club who has members collecting ancients etc. The money is not burning a hole in my pocket and I understand that the more research, and a gentle easing in to an unknown subject is the wisest course of action.

[DANTE]

There's much good advice here.

I can add one tip: @Spaniardmentioned there are a few ancient coin dealers not far from where you live. A house call to one of them would be a good idea. Dealers are knowledgeable, generally helpful, can give you a little nudge in the right direction and can physically show you some of the coins you may be interested in  (coins in hand often feel and look different than in pics) (And yes, he might try to sell you a coin or two in the process, but that's only fair 😊).         This is how I bought my first ancients, and I felt it was a great introduction to the hobby. I still regret that there is no dealer near where I live now.