Ancients And American Collectors

aboarman: Your experience is typical as to how many of us happen to become interested in ancient coins.

My first ancient coin was a denarius of Antoninus Pius in VF. That was a bit over 40 years ago.......
Fortunately, a tremendous amount of research into Ancient Greek and Roman coins has been done over the last 150 years or so. People had earned their PhD's from this research.

Even now, I have a neice who has doing her final thesis presentation in Roman sociology for her PhD.

Makes it a lot easier for us latter day ancient coin collectors!

Usuallly, it is a fascination for things ancient that provides the original spark for interest to grow. Travelling to sites that are steeped in ancient history helps. Under these conditions the coins come alive, rather than just a curious artifacts from a long ago, bygone era.

I'd certainly agree with this - about 25% of my recent sales have been to America and its nice to note that the vast majority of these were to 'new' inexperienced ancient collectors that have the sort of interest and enthusiasm that puts a smile on your face.

Saps thoughts on 'home' coins are correct - the UK was under Roman control for a long time and has more links to them than many initially realise, we even had a few of our own Emperors. The ground is full of coins and every few months someone finds something special to keep the interest up. The Romans played such an important part in our heritage and language over here their coins are considered 'home' coins, depending on what sources you read the Romans are even linked to King Arthur (if he even existed!).

American coins have a lot going for them, I love the designs (even if they are a bit samey), the high silver content of the older ones and the fact that older coins can still be found in circulation. Although I've never collected them I've always had an interest in them. Although not as long as in other fields America also has an interesting history which is mine, and I suspect many others real reason for collecting specific coins.

I think they have been a victim of their own success, prices have gone up in recent years and I think this is putting a lot of people off. Its increased the flow of fakes from China and no doubt more people have been burned and put-off for life. The aspects of American collecting that put me off the most are the grading, slab and value estimation situation.

It offers little personal freedom and strikes me as an industry created and pushed by the companies themselves simply to earn money. For me this takes the fun out of collecting and I've seen these sentiments echoed by new arrivals in the ancients area. I also find the error and VAM aspects of the hobby unappealing, confusing and perhaps even unnecessary.

In a lot of aspects collecting ancients is more of a basic and fun undertaking, you can pretty much do whatever you want to the coins. Its also a lot cheaper than many thought and the coins more freely available. I suspect to those who dont like set rules it offers a breath of fresh air.

I couldn't agree more, although I must admit that I've destroyed my fair share of ancient coins as I learned the basics of properly restoring them. For me, the low cost of starting a collection is very appealing, and in this economy, restoring coins has provide a much-needed source of income.

dougsmit - Thank you for expressing those thoughts on how ancients can have appeal for a wide range of numismatic interests. I find it ironic that ancient coins have, for many of us, opened up a whole new way of thinking about coin collecting that takes all the old stodgy rules associated with collecting more modern (eg U.S.) coins and throws them out the window.
I think that anyone who's been bitten by the ancient coin bug will tell you that enjoyment in this is something intrinsic that cannot be dictated by convention.

Before I started, I would have loved to have had an ancient coin, but I simply thought that each and every one of them was super-expensive, so naturally I didn't go for them. But when I found out that that was not the case and bought my first two, I immediately became hooked. To have something so old and that has gone through so much history, at a good price, those things appealed to me about ancients. With their intricate and symbolic designs, to me, they are like works of art. Affordable art. I still currently collect US, but very little now, to the point where I only go after a few types and that's it. Put it this way: when I have money to spend on coins, I don't ask myself "What US coin do I want today?", I ask "Hmmm. What Roman coin could I buy with my money?".

To be honest I'm almost getting bored of seeing the same Indian heads, the same Walking Liberties, the same Mercury dimes, etc. Don't get me wrong I still like them; it's just that I want more variety in my coin collecting, and Roman coins completely satisfy that for me. And yeah, I don't get all the hoopla about VAMS or tiny varieties that you need a microscope to see. I couldn't care less. Or the difference between MS 66 and MS 67 kind of stuff. YAWN...

IMO I think those that currently don't collect ancients are missing out. It's a lot of fun

I have been following this discussion with great interest all day. We in the US are limited to what we can attribute to the development of our history. We after all are still a young country. In the UK and the continent there is so much of their history buried in the ground in the form of ancient coins just waiting for someone with a medal detector and shovel to bring to the surface.

Honestly, this has nearly damaged the hobby for me, by how US coins in slabs have almost become a product, where the one aspect of coins I enjoy most--the details--are one step removed by those plastic coin coffins.

I enjoy studying details, and I have slowly moved towards older coins that show evidence of handwork, such as retooled dies, overdates, etc. So I suspect collecting ancients is my next step, with no end of rulers, mints, portrait styles and other varieties to collect and study.

While modern coins borrow heavily from the stylistic traditions of the Romans, a level of aesthetics has been lost over the years due to modernization. Just compare the recent US Presidential dollars to portraits on any Greco-Roman coin, and it's easy to understand the draw of ancients.

I can't speak for other collectors, but for me personally, I've stopped collecting U.S. coins because of the skyrocketing prices. I've found that I can buy late roman bronzes, and occasionally some early denarii, for very cheap when compared to U.S. coins.