Noob Looking For Pointers

to the community

Anoob told me he was in contact with you. Nice to have you join us. The best way to learn is to go through the the sticky section on Books, downloads and website as Chris stated. And to visit us often an ask questions before you attempt to buy any coins.

The link chrsmat posted is filled with resources.

If you're looking for books which will give you a broad overview, try the ancient coin books written by Wayne G. Sales. I bought them recently and would have wasted less time if I'd read these at the very beginning of my ancient collecting.

http://www.wgs.cc/store/index.php?r...y&path=60_63

Simply understanding the traditional categories of ancient coins is a good place to start. Greek (and different periods within that), Roman Republic, Roman Imperatorial, Roman Imperial, Byzantine, etc.

My purchases began with uncleaned coins. That was less fun than expected, but others have had better luck (or have better cleaning skills and patience!). My fever (and spending) escalated pretty quickly after that.

I find that buying large "mixed" lots is a ton of fun and also helps me learn. Mixed lots can be found fairly commonly at auctions, often with a general description and no picture. Sometimes it is a fingers-crossed leap of faith. Sorting through and attributing the coins is fun and educational.

Browsing the numerous near-daily auctions around the world is fun and educational as well.

I regularly troll all of the newly posted auctions at these two auction aggregator sites:

https://www.numisbids.com/

www.sixbid.com

There is considerable overlap between the two but there are a few auction houses that are only shown by one or the other of these aggregators (Roma Numismatics, for instance, shows up on Sixbid but not on Numisbids).

Have fun!