What's Your Holy Grail?

That's a nice coin but your comment with all the names was mostly Greek (Roman?) to me.

Mine would have to be the tetradrachn of Macedon under Roman rule First Meris. I can get a decent one for about $600. But I want a really nice one and that can cost much more.

There's nothing I'd risk damnation and divorce to get.

An attainable goal is one of these:



Or any of the Wang Mang types I don't already have, or any of the pre-Qin round coin types I don't already have. These all cost well into the four figures (with the exception of a few, if you know where to get them), so I won't be getting them any time soon.

Holy Grail for me might be a collection of Morgan DMPL's. (Deep Mirror Proof Like). I'm in the learning phase on the subject. My understanding is that a 16, 18, 20 etc. inch mirrored DMPL suggests that when held at the specified distance, images remain readable in the mirrored field of the coin. My concern would be in buying a polished coin that didn't come that way from the mint.

My love for history drives my love for ancients. There is too much history tied to too many coins to pick just one.

My only sense of focus in ancients collecting is that I someday hope to assemble a "portrait collection" of emperors--preferably in silver but realistically most will be bronze. There are some incredibly rare emperors, and most of the non-emperors (wives, usurpers, friends and family) have a story as to how they got on a coin. The gods have graced me with Galba, Numerian and Aelia Eudoxia from uncleaned lots, but I have a long, long way yet to go. I suppose that famous figures like Otho would be high on my list, as would the really obscure usurpers that nobody outside of a specialist has even heard of.

Beyond that, my collection has expanded organically into:

- Historically significant; my favorite in this respect is my Marc Antony Legionary denarius, although I could really use an upgrade. High on my list would also be anything related to a famous battle or other event.

- Artistic. I don't have any "Wow!" Greek coins, but there were some impressively rendered coins, especially the silver and gold from the classical and Hellenistic ages. Rome also churned out some mighty fine Consecratio types to mourn a dead wife or child of the emperor.

- Culturally diverse. I am expanding beyond the scope of uncleaned lots and into the Near East, India, and China. High on my list would be distinctively Celtic (like those gold or silver coins with abstract geometric shapes or stylized horses), native Egyptian (the Nectanebo stater, which costs as much as a new car), Carthaginian, Axumite, and plenty of others that I am probably forgetting.

- Linguistic. Roman coins are easily accessible, given that their legends can be read. Greek can be read with very little practice. But Aramaic, Heiroglyphic, Parthian, Pahlavi, Brahmi etc are all extinct languages. I have a lot already, but examples with clear, legible legends in obscure scripts can be extremely pricey.

My holy grail was a coin of Nepotianus but...
I´ve got one in a lot!


(just for 2 €)

I´m looking for another holy grail, I suppose that Domitian II will be the next...

I probably couldn't choose a single coin. But if I had to, it would probably be one of the 5th century AE2 types (the ones attributed to a certain mint now in my country).

Other than that...
Any other reasonably identifiable late Roman bronze from any 5th century emperors I didn't have already. (The rarer the better.)
Roman silver (actual silver, not that billon Aurelian antoninianus). Or Greek silver. Or really anything pre-1500 and not Russian in good silver. (I'll be fine with 16th century too, but I have two of those already.)
Gold (and/or electrum), I suppose, but that's pretty much a dream anyway.
...Probably a bunch of other stuff I couldn't think of immediately.