So How And Why Did You Start Collecting Ancients?

Almost all lifetime collectors (naturally enough) start collecting as kids. With this sort of person, there is a fascination that a coin, quite different with what is normally used, can still buy something and has value.

The perceived scarcity somehow increases the value as an object to collect.

And so it was with me.

A rarely seen commemorative, at a time when commemoratives were not seen in circulation, fascinated me. Of course as a kid, I did not have money to spend on coins. That was way back in 1952!

When I was 12, my father was asked to pick a lock on his firm's safe, because the note on which the combination numbers was lost. He picked the tumblers, and inside the safe was a George 1V shilling in in VF condition. I still have that coin! That was in 1958.

However later on, as a teenager, my experience was nearly the same as Sap's. I saw a Roman denarius of Antoninus Pius, with modius and corn ears reverse, in good VF condition for sale in a coin shop. The price? $4.50, which I thought was really cheap for such an old coin. That was in 1962.

What inspired me to buy the denarius was that another school student brought a very nice sestertius of Nero to school. The fascination from previous years was re kindled.

Over about 4 years I built an Australian gold type set, which included an Adelaide Pound. That set was completed in 1967.

However, my first love is ancients. I have a gold stater of Philip 11 of Macedon (Pella Mint, I have actually been to Pella). I also have two Roman aureii, an electrum stater of the Bosporus, a late Roman solidus and a Byzantine solidus, as well as 5 or 6 other ancient gold coins, mainly from the Indian sub continent.

I have maybe 250 ancient coins in all in an overall collection of perhaps 3500 coins.

That fascination for interesting coins has never diminished.

I started collecting when I was a wee lad. I remember finding Canadian pennies and my father giving me small change from parts of Europe after he returned form his business travels. I saved unusual coins that I encountered in my change into my early teens. And then when it was suddenly revealed to me that both of my grandfathers and a couple of uncles were life-long numismatists I certainly caught on. (It is kind of odd that I didn't realize or was not told of this until I was about 14, especially since I had already begun to get into coins on my own). One of my great uncles sent me a small batch of low-grade Romans when I was 15. (They were just of Constantine and his family) So this got me started on ancients. And I have dabbled in them ever since.

Great stories.

Here is my first coin:



Still in my collection and always will be - It was the early 90s and I was about 12, my dad bought it for me in Cambridge when my sister was at uni there. Every time we went to visit her I got another one (as long as I didn't moan about the 8hr round trip car journey!) from the £3 bargain box at Granta coins, just checked on the net and the shop is still there.

I was blown away by how old they were and by the stories of the people depicted on them. I found a neolithic arrowhead when I was a kid and my dad used to find fossils at work and bring them home for me and it all kind of opened my mind up to history. I still collect all three today but atm the coins are winning. Of late I'm selling the other items to fund the coins. I did once find a Roman coin but it is far too corroded to be IDed

I still dont think I'm a numismatist - I just love history and art.

I started collecting ancient coins about ten years ago. This was sparked by my interest in history. My family tree goes back to Italy and Eastern Europe so I wanted to learn more about those areas. So what better way to do that than through its coinage. I bought my first lot of 10 uncleaned coins on e-bay and from that the collection has grow to 500 imperial and provincial coins and 100 or so ancient Chinese coins, along with a number of uncleaned coins that I am working on.

I picked up my first ancients in an antique mall for $3 a piece. I was fascinated by them but did not start truly perusing the field in depth until fall of 2009. I have about 100 attributed coins in my collection now and many more in the cleaning process. I have asked my parents for more on my 20th birthday, which is in 4 days!!