1700+ Yrs-Old And New Coins

i paid $38 for the ancient from incitatus coins. shipping included

I would love to get some ancient coins, but not knowing enough about them I am afraid to get fakes.
I hope to learn more about them and start collecting.

Gecko: You need not worry about fakes with ancient coins as a beginner, if you go about it the right way.

Start by collecting late Roman bronzes. You can pick them up for as little as $10.
If you do this, I have no doubt that your first coin will be pretty much a mystery to you.

However, you have already taken the first correct step to becoming an enthusiastic ancient collector.

What is that first step you have taken?
You are a member of the CCF!
There are quite a few folks within the CCF ready to help you with attribution of your 'mystery' coin, and are only too happy to help you along the way with your ancient coin collecting experiences.

If you want to get a really pricey coin, you MUST go to a specialist dealer, preferably with an internationally recognised reputation.
I have bought Roman gold coins in this manner. Just keep all of the documentation if you do this.

However, I still derive a lot of fun determining the attribution of late Roman bronze coins, which numerically represent by far the largest part of my collection of Roman coins. By the way it is very difficult for a faker to replicate the aging processes that late Roman bronze coins undergo.

I had a late Roman Bronze coin that looked OK, but it broke in two. As it turned out, the body of the metal in the coin had long since corroded completely, and the coin was composed 100% of bronze corrosion products only!

Not to go off topic but I'm wondering what would be the Roman coins that would be commonly faked? I would like to know a few handful of specific models and perhaps of particular medals, like a silver denarius. I saw some denarii of Julia Domna and thought that they looked real, but I wasn't sure.

jessvc1: I like your Philip I coin. Too bad you got rid of it. Some of the best portraits are of Philip I and II. Usually good detail and lifelike detail. As the Romans progressed into the later years they lost some of the life-like detail as is seen on your coin. I have a couple of these coins I truly love.

JW

Very good advice from Doug. Using common sense will protect us better then anything else. I'd love to have a buck for every time I told my sons "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". I know as a collector I'm always looking for that special coin that someone is selling at a low cost because they have no idea what they have. The chances of that happening with today's electronic media is next to nil. But, alas, I keep looking.

In fact, bobbyhelmet and I were discussing this point earlier today. A seller had a coin for sale on ebay way below market value. He said the coin was a metal detector find and he had no idea what the coin was. Hogwash! The legend on the coin was very readable and, for God's sake, it was a HADRIAN coin found in GB. How many Brits don't know who Hadrian was? I would expect something like that in the U.S. since our educational system can be lacking. But Hadrian in Britian? I would shy away from someone like this. To be fair, the coin was at such a low price one could rationalize buying it if one didn't mind loosing his money if the coin turns out to be fake.

Anyway, if you stick around on this forum, you'll learn a lot about these coins and the things to look for in a genuine coin. If you find a coin and are unsure, post it here. We're more than happy to give our opinions. You know the old saying about opinions don't you? Just like a part of the anatomy, everyone has one.

JW

Oh yeah, those are some excellent coins. I hope to have their like one day. Haha

I based spotting fakes on how familiar I am with the design. If it's made out of a different metal, chances are it's fake. If the metal looks new, the same. And other things. I know I can use these judgments and other skills to figure out fakes with ancients. Except that I need more experience because I am unfamiliar with a lot of designs and to make it more difficult it seems like a particular coin type was minted slightly different, I've seen a few times. Maybe it was a different minting house, a different custom die, etc.

Gil-galad, also if an ancient is magnetic, that's a dead giveaway for it being fake.