Help On Greek Coins

Thanks for the response. I do not have very deep pockets. Would it be cheaper to start with late roman coins?

Roman in general, but I hope to eventually have sub collections from different emperors. Particularly the caesers. Also interested in coins from alexander the great. I'm completely new to this and I know some coins are super expensive and others are dirt cheap, but I dont know which eras are which. And I know a little about grading modern coins (enough to keep me out of trouble), but I dont know how to judge grading for ancient coins since they already appear to be beat up.

Ok. Thank you for your help.

Uncleaned is the way to start. You'll learn what the real deal looks like and get a working knowledge of the common types. I have quite a pile of them somewhere, if you PM me, I could sort you out with a few at a fair price.

Just so you know, Sparta didnt actually issue any coinage at that point. In fact, they went one further - a true Spartan was supposedly banned from owning money and coinage, supposedly corruption followed it. Greek coinage circulated pretty widely - ifthey had any monetary system at all, it would have utilised coinage from a nearby city state. Ancient sources suggest they used iron bars as currency to stop people getting rich (where would you keep it?) but archeologically speaking its unlikely.

The closest thing to a spartan coin you'll find is from around 200BC, when coinage was finally minted in the area. Its very expensive though. Later, roman coinage was issued from Sparta and rare coinage reads the name of the state, Lacedaemon.

Alexander III (the Great) issued a lot of coinage and its easy to come across. The real expensive stuff is lifetime silver issues, but copper coinage from later commemorating him can be had cheaply, like this one. I own a coin a bit nicer than this example:



As for emperors, there are 207 represented on coinage and several more rulers named as issuers or who issued coinage in the names of the other rulers. Its a tricky set to complete, but you can get the rulers from Constantine I until the collapse quite cheaply. As for the 'Caesars', the term Caesar was a title in the roman empire for hundreds of years, and a lot of people had it. The 12 caesars (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero, Vespasian et cetera, who were the first emperors of Rome (Julius wasnt technically emperor, but thats another story)) is a popular set, but tricky to complete due to the short reigning emperors in the middle, but we could certainly help you find nice example of the more common ones.

Grading is tricky and subjective, so we dont do it. It just goes by eye appeal and personal preference.

Ben, how do you pm on this forum? Is it just the email button? And how do you clean them without damaging them?

Are there any coins of leonidas I?

Ben, I sent an email through ebay.