3 years of collecting

[ambr0zie]

As I was just preparing my catalogue, to add the coins I won this weekend, I realized that on the 4th of October it was my "ancient birthday" - the date I participated in my first auction for ancient coins. In 2020. Many things happened in my life in the last 3 years. Most of them - not very good. Life goes on. 

I knew some things about ancient coins and I had about 20 of them, bought randomly. Some are still in my collection but almost all were slugs/very common and poor condition. I like and respect them as ancient artefacts, but even if condition is NOT one of the major factors that makes me buy/like a coin, I tried to aim a little higher than I was in my "pre-collecting" days. 

My view was distorted and incorrect, as for some reason I thought that owning a denarius, especially one in a decent condition, will cost hundreds, if not thousands of euros. As for bronze coinage, I was under the impression that most of the coins that survived until today are extremely worn/impossible to be correctly attributed and anything more is extremely expensive. 

My first auction brought me a lot of 34 ancient coins (described as "Bronze Roman coins" (incorrectly!). I also bought a lot of 4 "Silver Roman coins" - this was correct - 4 coins in very nice conditions. And a lot of another "8 Silver Roman coins" - also correct. These ones were denarii, in average conditions, but I was able to attribute them myself without issues. 

This was the lot of 34 coins (actually 35 but one of them was a complete slug and looked like a large bronze from 18th-19th century).

It was a fantastic exercise and helped me to learn how to research and attribute coins. Some interesting stuff here - and cheap. A Titus sestertius, a Trajan denarius, a Gallienus antoninianus with good amount of silver, a Campania, Neapolis bronze, a barbarous VRBS ROMA. 

In these 3 years I tried to study as much as I could, reading literature and checking auctions. I "stole" from CT members and from here, of course. I tried to learn Imperial coinage. Easy. I branched to Provincials - these were scary at first because of the enormous amount of coinage and variety plus difficulty. Soon I started looking for Greek coins too. And of course Roman Republican coins, that, in my opinion, are more artistic and symbolic than Imperials, generally speaking. 

I consider myself competent, but I am far from being an expert. Because 1. I am still young in this field 2. I don't want to specialize in a single category (I was tempted to focus on Trajan but gave up quickly, it's extremely difficult and I prefer buying diversified coins) 3. I already pay too much for my income. It is not a cheap hobby. But for me, paying more than 100 euros for a coin means that it's very special and really deserves my money. Good news is that ancient coinage allows budget collectors all the freedom in the world. 

How was your first step in this hobby? 

And also, since I know there are members here with three decades of collecting, not three years - what was your collecting strategy after 3 years? Did you have targets, clear ideas to develop your collections? 

[Ocatarinetabellatchitchix]

Congratulations on this anniversary Alex. After three years, you can definitely say that you are contaminated by the collecting virus…

[ominus1]

..kool story man..:)  happy anniversary and many more to ya!

[AETHER]

🙂

[kirispupis]

Congrats on the anniversary!

You're just slightly ahead of me. I looked it up and my first ancients purchase was on 11/13/2020, so I'll hit my three year anniversary next month. 🙂

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

That's a great story! 

My first two coins were junk boxers, purchased in the 1980's.  I didn't start collecting in earnest until 1993.  Being bored teenagers, my friend and I would go to these local flea markets.  At a really decrepit one there was a guy who had coins, and he had some ancients.  I think my *first* coins of the 1993 era were a barbarous radiate (haven't bought one since) and a corroded Trebonianus Gallus Ant.

My core likes and dislikes are similar to back then, but I've widened my collecting interests since then.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

I started in 1980 with an antoninianus of whom else, Gordian III. I was living in Hawaii at the time and the proprietor of a coin shop in the shopping mall had a tray of ancients. The bright and silvery coin caught my eye and I bought it for $30. It was a Mars Martem Propugnatorem reverse. The owner explained to me that the coin was issued for the Persian campaign which also was the last time in Roman history that the temple of Janus was opened. This was around the time of the Iranian hostage crisis so Persia was in the news.

He also had coins of Julia Domna, Theodosius, and Aelia Flacilla, amongst others. As an ancient history buff at a young age (I read everything about ancient Rome I could find). Also around that time I Claudius, the BBC show was aired on PBS' Masterpiece Theater, which I found to be a highly interesting show.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Ancient Coin Hunter

[Al Kowsky]

                                                                                                                                  

                      

              The gypsy queen "Madam Marie" sees many more years of happy collection for you ☺️.

[expat]

I started collecting ancient coins on 22nd May 2022. This is the date my first coin arrived. It had previously been in the hands of @Sulla80 @JAZ Numismatics and @Theodosius . I won it in a competition facilitated by @lordmarcovan . It was a dupondius of Antoninus Pius with an Annona reverse and I have been hooked since. I have no sole direction in my collecting, all coins are fascinating to me, although I currently have 11 Antonines with another coming this week. I have some Greeks,  Republicans and Provincials. I am becoming more familiar about where to look up info regarding each coin I acquire, and I must say this is as exciting as having the coin. I don´t think I will specialise in a certain type because with each new arrival comes an opportunity to learn more historical facts about the rough time of issue. Not only that, but each coin that arrives gives me great pleasure in holding it and imagining what it might have seen before being lost for millennia.

Thanks for reading.

[Heliodromus]

I've been collecting almost exactly 20 years now. My collection focus is Constantine, with an emphasis on coins issued by him rather than for him (by his co-emperors). This was my collection focus from day 1, but I have changed a bit over time.

- My original focus was both too narrow and too broad in different ways ... Too narrow in that it was initially focused on the changing pagan->christian times as seen through his coinage, when you really need to take his coinage/actions/etc as a whole to put it in context. Too broad in that I let myself get distracted by buying coins that were related to this initial religious theme but from different time periods - really part of self-education that would have been better served just by looking and reading rather than buying! Luckily not too many of those!

- Owning an example of every reverse type struck by Constantine, even if limiting yourself to bronze, is an impossible task (e.g. a few only-one-knowns in museum collections, as well as private ones), and it took me a while to define exactly what my goal is. One could chase the impossible complete collection, but I've settled on trying to have a number of complete sub-collections from different mints and dates (still impossible!), sufficient to illustrate the progression of the coinage with an emphasis on the interesting parts of it. I think these sub-collection type focuses have a way of finding you over time, as you develop your interests and as luck brings you a critical mass of coins from a particular interesting focus!

I'm not sure that I have a strategy as such but perhaps a bit of a philosophy of enjoying the journey and the unexpected finds and not worrying too much about the rate at which coins are being crossed off my want list (which necessarily slows down over time). While I've certainly got the magpie/Gollum collector's disease, I do find that I equally if not more enjoy researching and learning about the coinage, to the extent that I sometimes now question why I need to actually own them .. but then, you know, Gollum.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Heliodromus

[KenDorney]

My first coin, purchased in 1985 for $29.  It was way overpriced at the time but I did not know it, and it did not stop me nor do I care all these days later!  I still have this coin.  38 years later (I guess I am getting old) I simply collect whatever I have an interest in.  I have dabbled over the decades with various themes but none ever made me happy.  Now I simply collect anything that interests me (and that is primarily bronzes).

 

Yea, I still cant remember how to paste text without it being a pic.  What a weird thing.  Just a flaw with the software.

Edited October 9, 2023 by KenDorney

[Salomons Cat]

Happy anniversary!!

On 10/8/2023 at 9:45 PM, ambr0zie said:

How was your first step in this hobby? 

And also, since I know there are members here with three decades of collecting, not three years - what was your collecting strategy after 3 years? Did you have targets, clear ideas to develop your collections? 

My first step was about 21 years ago, when I was 11 years old. I saw some Roman coins on a flea market and I bought a Constantius II follis in fine condition for 5 CHF, that was euqual to about 3 USD at that time, I believe. Today 5 CHF = 5 USD.
I was very sceptical about the authenticity of the Constantius II follis during several months until a historian that I met at a local museum took me to his office and showed me some books (Roman Imperial Coinage) and convinced me that my coin was genuine. During the following years I bought some other Roman coins, a Gordian III denarius and an antoninian, for example. But nothing very special or valuable. Luckily! The prices for most of the coins on the flea market were too high, anyways. And I didn't have access to other sources. 

Then, when I was about 16 years old, I feared that collecting coins was "not cool" and I discontinued. What would the girls think?! 😄 I rather went to the gym and whatever 16 year olds do.

Later I studied law and medicine, during that time I was only focused on my studies and I didn't have much money anyways. So I didn't even think about collecting ancient coins. Since a few years I'm finally earning some money, I have a safe job, I was able to buy an apartment - and about 1-2 years ago I looked for ancient coins on ebay, just to check what was available on the market and to look at the prices. And since then I'm obsessed with ancient coins ☺️

Not with coins from the Later Roman Empire, though. I don't know why - they don't fascinate me as much. I just feel more "connected" to the earlier Roman coins. I also like silver coins more than bronzes. That's why I collect Roman silver coins only, and only until Max Thrax. I don't think that there is any logical reason behind my preference. 

I also realized that many people enjoy history and talking about the Roman Empire. 
I didn't expect that when I was 16. So, ... 

Edited October 10, 2023 by Salomons Cat

[lordmarcovan]

I’ve been collecting coins since 1976, but I date my serious collecting of ancients only to 2007.  I had a few cheaper ancients (Chinese cash, late Roman bronzes, even a couple of pick bin denarii) as far back as the 1980s, but it was only after 2007 that I really began actively collecting ancients; specifically an “A to Z” (Augustus to Zeno) Roman Imperial collection.

I still consider myself semi-novice in company like the present forum.  I’m not the scholar that many of you are.  I just like pretty baubles with some history attached, is all.  

Edited October 14, 2023 by lordmarcovan

[Furryfrog02]

Happy (belated) Ancient Birthday!