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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,493 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
842 Posts |
Almost every coin minted for the ancient Roman empire was minted in various officinae throughout the same city. For example, a coin with the same exact obverse and reverse minted in Rome might have mintmarks of RP, RS, RT, or RQ. The coins would have the same RIC# in spite of the varied mint mark combinations. Are any of you attempting to build complete 'sets' of coins where this occurs? If so, post pics!
I am building a RIC 181 Siscia set for emperor Crispus. In this set there are 5 coins: ASIS(sunburst), BSIS (sunburst), εSIS(sunburst), ΓSIS(sunburst), and ΔSIS(sunburst). I currently have the first two and have my sights set on some high-grade coins for the third and fourth officinae. They are pricy, but worth it in my eyes. I will post some pics within the next 24 hours of the two I have as of right now.
So, does building sets like this seem like a good idea, an impossible endeavour, or a waste of time?
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
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So, does building sets like this seem like a good idea, an impossible endeavour, or a waste of time? Good question, most seasoned collectors would write off collections like this as a bit of a waste of time and akin to collecting by numbers. I dont think this is necessarily the case. I'm collecting something similar, it started as just a SOLI INVICTO COMITI Constantine coin from each of the issuing mints, 13 in total. As soon as I managed that I decided to try and get one of every mint and mintmark variation, around 210 coins. I have about 30-40 currently but consider it a kind of lifetime endeavour, no rush, in all honesty completing it would mean the end of me searching for these coins and thats part of the fun. With 200+ coins it could also get very expensive. At $50 per coin I'd be looking at a $10K total spend! It depends what your reason for collecting is, mine was to learn, it forced me to read about the coin type and also helped me understand the mintmarks, I dont hold onto any coins that dont interest me so if I ever finish or get to a point where I feel I know everything about this series I'll probably sell them and move on. I think trying to become 'expert' on a single small coin series is a good idea, it helped me understand a lot of things outside that series. In all honesty, as I get more into the history behind the coins and the people on them, physically owning them becomes less important. Nobody can ever own 'one of everything' or perhaps even %10 of that! One thing I decided a long time ago was that everyone collects for a different reason and there are no real 'rights' or 'wrongs' to collecting as long as you enjoy it. Short answer: I think building sets is a good idea  I too will post some pics if I get the time. Edited by bobbyhelmet
04/12/2012 5:39 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2269 Posts |
I always believed that you should collect what you want. What you collect is essentially yours not someone else's. That being said, I like the idea. With ancients the possibilities are endless. There are so many different avenues you can take.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2448 Posts |
I also agree that we can never own "everything"; however, we should always strive to understand what we choose to collect. If you choose to build the set, build it; (I hate ending a sentence with a preposition!)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
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I hate ending a sentence with a preposition! Hmmm, I'll have to be more careful as there seems to be another English grammar aficionado lurking about. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
Way too many of my silliest coins have been purchased to make illustrations for some point on my webpages. One set is to show the way workshop systems work so I'd like to have a complete set of workshops for one coin. Silly? Maybe. I have been trying to get all ten of the shops for both common types of Antioch Anonymous Pagans but am still missing some. Sillier perhaps is my fondness for coins from workshop nine whether it was expressed in any of several ways.
We all collect what we like. I would really prefer it if none of you would specialize in coins I like. They will be cheaper for me if you all stay away!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1315 Posts |
I'm putting together a set of coins that few people seem to like, Constantinopolis commemoratives. I'm getting one from each city and each officina. You would think it would be easy, but there are a couple that are really elusive and some that are hard to find in nice condition. Not really so cheap either. I think most collectors want one example for the type, but I'll just go ahead with the whole collection. I think they look nice all together and the different styles and characteristics begin to become apparent. There is still a lot that I don't know about this simple coin. If you care to see them so far, they are here. http://constantinopolis.weebly.com/index.html |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
842 Posts |
Well, here is a picture of the first coin in the set I am building. As you can see, it has some patination problems on the obverse. I am going to try and find a better example.  This has the ASIS(sunburst) mintmark. These two are ones I am currently looking at aquiring. They are pretty nice coins IMO.   I have the BSIS variety, but I do not have any pictures of it right now to show you. If I buy the last two pictured I will only have one more in the set to find, ΔSIS(sunburst. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, these two are pricy. The first is $25 and the second is $30. |
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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,493 |
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Posted 04/12/2012 4:56 pm
