How Do You Collect Ancient Coins?

I agree with what Whiz4ng said. I would also say that there is a lot of knowledgeable and experienced collectors here so ask questions. We are all will to help you learn.

Nathan
Thank you for making this post .. I have been thinking about the same questions.

I worry about being able to tell what coins are real.
From reading on this site .. I have learned to check out Wildwinds and Vcoins site.

I think it will take me some time to be able to identify what the coins are.

@ GR58,
Yes I have been cautious about fakes also, just looking at some of the ancients on ebay I looked at one I really liked, A very nice Greek coin for a fair price with a long item description. I read it and at the very bottem it said "This coin is a Fake". That was very disappointing and upset me. If you are going to sell a copy it should be clear in the title.
Anyways I will stay far away from ebay and check out the stickys on this thread. I will also try out Vcoins as I have heard good reviews from them.

@FVRIVS RVFVS
Well said. You are right a coin is like a work of art. I looked up the silver drachm you said, it's a very interesting little coin. There are so many interesting ancient coins I don't know what to chose!

Well, beyond the fact that I don't have an ebay account (and don't plan to get one anytime soon either), $70 is still a bit more that I would pay for any single coin (unless it's either gold, a dollar-sized or larger silver, or something ridiculously rare that realistically should've been worth $500+ - and I won't be too sure about the last two options).
Now, if there was a Greek silver around for $20-30 (and it wasn't a nigh-unidentifiable corroded mess), I would've probably bought it. I've heard that lower-grade common Roman silvers occasionally go for under $10; so there's at least something to hunt for on that side!

Other than that, yeah, most of my collecting is bargain-hunting. I know that I could've bought a Morgan dollar for $70 at any time, and I've seen a few as low as $55; but I'm sure that I'll eventually find one for $40 or even less, so I'm still searching for that one
However, very often, if I see a coin from a completely new (to me) type/series/theme at a reasonable (under $20ish) price, I just can't resist buying it - and often ultimately find out that I overpaid (sometimes by quite a lot - that 1699 English fourpence certainly wasn't actually worth anywhere near the $40 I paid for it).

An Antoninus Pius denarius is an excellent choice for the beginner. An extraordinary large variety and of course being the all time #1 Mr Niceguy is priced much closer to the average collectors budget. I have seen really superb pieces priced under $35 and as this example shows very nice ones can even be had for the price of a used video game on ebay !

It is difficult to assemble "sets" of coins with ancients, compared to modern coins. That's mainly due to the way coins were made back then, compared to today. When each die is carved by hand and each coin is stamped by hand, it means that different types and varieties abound; attempting to "complete a type set" would be both prohibitively expensive and futile, since new "types" are still being dug up all the time.

Still, there are "themes" than can be pursued, for those who like a little more focus to their collections. "The 12 Caesars" is a very common one in the Roman series. "One of each emperor" is less common, because several emperors are only known from a handful of coins. "Biblical coins" is another very popular theme that crosses both the Greek and Roman coin series. "Architecture" is another popular theme.

Of course, coins from these "popular themes" do tend to be more expensive than equally rare and interesting coins that do not happen to fit the themes. Silver denarii of emperor Tiberius, for example, are fairly common - but because they fit into both the "12 Caesars" and "Biblical" collections, they are far pricier than an equally common denarius from, say, emperor Trajan.

Many ancients collectors settle down to a small area they specialize in, that interests them: the coins of the city of Ephesus, for example, or the coins of emperor Septimus Severus and his family. Personally, I'm a generalist - expert in none, but dabbling in all.

As for Internet references, Wildwinds has already been mentioned; it's an excellent one-stop-shop for identifying and evaluating Greek, Roman, Roman Provincial and Byzantine coins. Particularly useful is the "partial inscription search", which can be surprisingly good at helping identify a coin where only a few letters are legible. The FORVM website is also pretty good, both as a reputable source of genuine coins and a database of known fakes; they also maintain a blacklist of fake-sellers on eBay; if you must buy from ebay, then at least avoid any seller named there.

For books for beginners, I'd recommend the six-volume series "Ancient Coin Collecting" by Wayne G. Sayles. They are not catalogues, but do give excellent overviews of each of the ancient coin series (Greek, Roman, Roman Provincial, Byzantine and "Everybody else") and they're fairly cheap. If nothing else, they should help you narrow down your collecting focus... or confirm you in not wishing to narrow down at all. His book "Classical Deception" on counterfeits and forgeries is also worthwhile reading.