| Author |
 Replies: 15 / Views: 1,518 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2403 Posts |
My wife's B-Day is coming up, and I want to get her an Ancient Roman coin for her world coin collection. The problem is I know NOTHING about these coins. I know I want to get her a silver one, if they exist. I also can not spend a lot on it. I will probably have purchase one off of ebay, and don't want to buy a counterfeit one. Any suggestions? Thanks...Mont. |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Using VCoins instead of ebay is wise, especially if you don't purchase ancients often. My recommendation is to start with the advanced search option at VCoins: https://www.vcoins.com/en/Search.aspxMake sure only Ancient Coins is checked at the top. Type in AR for the "all of these words" field. (Or, since you specify Roman in your post above, perhaps use "AR denarius" instead?) Set the price range to your liking. Make sure the bullet next to "All dates" is clicked. Search away and having fun looking. Edited by Kamnaskires
01/15/2017 4:32 pm
|
|
Valued Member
United States
408 Posts |
Look up Roman coins that have women on them, read about them, and see which woman is most like your wife. Write a letter telling her why. Give that and the coin together to her on her birthday. From that day forward, you will be known as CasanovaCollector.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
616 Posts |
Avoid ebay at all costs. You need to buy from a known source that guarantees what they sell. Everyone on VCoins does. Look at a list of emperors on Wikipedia and their bios. See if you can find a connection. Or you can go with a silver denarius in nice condition. Some of the more common ones are of Antonin Pius and his wife Faustina. They won't set you back more than $US 100 unless you want something special or in pristine condition. Pius was also one of the greatest Roman emperors and evidently he truly loved his wife. You can still see the temple he dedicated to her in the Roman Forum. But whatever you do, stick with VCoins. We do.  |
|
Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3443 Posts |
Contrary to popular belief there are some legitimate sellers of ancient coins on ebay. Some even belong to Vcoins !! My first thought for a reasonably priced coin with a female image was also Faustina Sr although her daughter Faustina Jr is slightly more appealing to the eye. But I will recommend a third choice ...... Lucilla. Daughter of Marcus Aurelius (sister of Commodus) and the wife of Lucius Verus. She was eventually murdered after a failed conspiracy against her brother. This choice of Empress has the added benefit of being something she might relate to through the movie Gladiator. Lucilla plays an important part in this fictionalized history of the period. That might appeal to your wife's sensibilties more than her reading about her in some tedious biography. Besides she is slightly better looking too ! Here is an ebay offering from one of those 'shady' sellers ...... aka Heritage Auctions I assume the price will at least double before the close http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roman-Empir...AOSwImRYdBSI |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
582 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
2403 Posts |
Wow! Thanks for all the replies and info. I have a lot of good choices to go through...gonna be tough.
I have never used Vcoins. Thanks for the links to this site. Now I have a new source to search through for all my coins.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
5249 Posts |
If you can't afford an empress, the denarii of Gordianus are relatively cheap.
|
|
Moderator
United States
34428 Posts |
@montcollector, we recently had a thread on CCF that discussed the women coinage of Ancient Rome: http://goccf.com/t/277272Any chance that you can find one with a name that is the same or at least similar to your wife's name? "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
There is a reason you are buying your wife an ancient for her birthday, rather than a birth year proof set or random world coin. What would appeal to her? Art? History?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2403 Posts |
Quote:
There is a reason you are buying your wife an ancient for her birthday, rather than a birth year proof set or random world coin. What would appeal to her? Art? History? She has always had a fascination with Ancient Rome. She loves world coins and has collected them since she was young. I figured I would combine the 2 this year. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
616 Posts |
Quote:Contrary to popular belief there are some legitimate sellers of ancient coins on ebay. Some even belong to Vcoins !! That's true. And some of them belong to this forum. I sell my extras/upgrades there. Still, it's a lot easier to tell a new collector "Go to Vcoins" than "Avoid ebay except for the following sellers..." |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
Does she have a favorite emperor? With a decent budget, you can get *just* about any of them except for the rarest ones that lasted less than 6 months. The Julio-Claudians are incredibly expensive in silver, but the rest are doable up until the time of Diocletian, when silver just fell out of favor. If you are doing silver, I would recommend getting an Antoninianus; they are just more satisfying in-hand compared to the denarius which can frankly be underwhelming to a new ancient collector. A denarius is about the size of dime; an antoninianus is closer to quarter size. Caracalla and Elagabalus both issued antoninianii, but they can be pricy. Gordian III issued some very nice examples that can be had in near mint state for less than $50. Ditto with Philip I and Trajan Decius. As posted a few days ago, here's an assortment of coins from the "crisis" that lasted from 235-296:  Not a single coin in that lot cost me more than $50, and most cost $10 or less. The only caveat is that Diocletian is pretty much the only emperor in the lineup that anyone other than a collector or history buff has heard of. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
513 Posts |
Sounds like a very thoughtful gift that I bet she'll enjoy. I think some people are misunderstanding the "avoid ebay" thing. New buyers shouldn't avoid ebay because all sellers sell fakes, but because some sellers sell fakes and even experienced people get tricked sometimes. Inexperienced people have no idea how to tell the difference. You said can't spend "a lot" but that means different things to different people. Personally I love Republican denarii, and many have the female portrait of Roma if that's important to you. Lower quality ones will run you a little under $100, and it goes up and up. You can get a very nice one for under $200 though. If you're looking to spend less, in the $50-$75 range, you still have options but are going to basically be picking one of two things; eye appeal or the subject being well known. You can get a solid Trajan or Hadrian in that range (very important emperors who if she likes Ancient Roman history she will be familiar with) or even a Marcus Aurelius (philosopher emperor, some people really love him.) If you're looking for straight up eye appeal look for a Gordian III, Severus Alexander, Septimius Severus and Caracalla. These guys aren't as well known but you can get some great looking coins with them for under $75. If you're trying to stay under $30 you can still get a decent looking, legible coin. It's probably going to be one of the guys I mentioned just above or their family members. You may have to deal with a crack or a chip. |
|
Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5177 Posts |
For what it's worth, my cheapest Roman denarius cost me about $3. It was a really really worn Faustina (Junior, I think - I made a full attribution, but forgot, and haven't seen it in months), and it came from a dealer who didn't really care about his silver (as in, he told me it was a denarius of Faustina, and he still only wanted $3 for it).
I've been told that stuff like this isn't actually that rare, and does happen occasionally.
(I've also seen much nicer examples of other emperors offered in the $20-40 range, but to me that would definitely count as "a lot".)
@Finn235 - now I want a set of Crisis antoniniani too! I think I only have three now (closer to two, really, if I add up the fractions), but one of them (the smallest fraction) is of a ruler not (yet?) on your picture (Otacilia Severa... paid $8 for the darn thing too).
|
| |
Replies: 15 / Views: 1,518 |
|
Posted 01/15/2017 4:17 pm
