Finally Bought My First Ancient

Thank you all... yes I may buy a tetradrachm at some stage but at present I am only working part time and money is a little tight.

My next thought is a Mesembria, thrace, corinthian helmet with wheel reverse...(my girlfriend lives close to where that used to be and I love that design. I am not sure what the META wheel is supposed to represent though) also a Hadrian silver denarius would be nice (relavent to me as he built a wall acros the top of my country) I would also like something from Sinope (its where the word cynic comes from, Diogenes is one of my favourite characters from the past) Rome wasn't built in a day though...I decided I would prefer to purchase something nice every now and then than lots of meaningless coins.

I also wondered what the significance of the Bee is on my coin (I wouldn't have recognised it as a Bee unless told)

Thanks for your warm welcome :) Maybe one day I will have many nice coins or maybe not...its hard to tell what the future may be.

Again, be very careful with the Mesembria coins, facing helmet / wheel. These have been forged a lot...

At least now I know why the forgers picked the types they did. They are extremely popular. Being a VCoins dealer used to mean more to me than it does now so I'd still not buy this type except from a very trusted dealer.

I share everyone's sentiments and congratulations!
Your pick is a better overall coin than what I posted for £ 106--well done!

I take your points, and maybe this mesembria coin is something that it better I buy in the flesh... I do find it very attractive, so there is no surprise that people counterfeit it but deciding I cannot buy one because of that is like handing the counterfeiters a victory.

This is the same with watches, the Cartier Tank Francais or the Breitling cronograph are two commonly faked watches. When I dealt with watches I was not scared to buy and sell these though...I knew enough to never purchase a Brietling without opening the case and inspecting the movement, and I knew enough to know a real from a fake cartier.

The difference with this Mesembria coin is that maybe I don't have the knowledge at present, maybe that will change.

As for what I was saying about the centering of the coin, my first example that I posted a picture of is still a beautiful coin in my opinion regardless that the helm is not perfect centre. It think that the design of the corinthian helm is iconic and beautiful in an agressive manner, and aestetically I have no problem with it being off central because it is a symetrical shape and it is obvious what the other edge would look like. (quite different to the Drachm where I wouldn't want to lose half of Heracles face)

Thanks for the explaination of the Bee... I don't yet have a book on Greek coins, no doubt I will purchase one in the future.

Anyway, I will not rush my next purchase, and as I see from perusing Vcoins there are many beautiful ancients...I must say I find the Greek coins more interesting that the Roman ones, which is not what I would have expected.

I have much to learn in this new field...I have always loved coins and in this past month I added my first hammered coin and my first ancient one, maybe I was correct to think milled modern coins are superior but what these old coins represent is far more interesting and far more educational than a modern coin whether it be gold or more valuable it has no bearing on it.

Thanks for all your advice... I know you guys know your subject better than I, and also that a little knowledge can be dangerous so I will be extremely cautious and not rush like a bull in a china shop (even if I know that is in my nature)

A matter of debatable opinion. While Greek coins can be very beautiful, so can Roman coins. And, as I have said before, much easier to read and attribute for this old guy anyway.

Beautiful Drachma!