For Beginners Who Ask "what Should I Collect?"

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,251
augustus1 Pillar of the Community United States 549 Posts	Posted 12/30/2017 7:27 pm Beginners sometimes ask "What should I collect?" Our members have been generous with good advice. Actually, I'm not sure a beginner can do much better than to watch threads for a while and get a feeling for what they like. However, they might wonder about reference works. I have been assembling pages of sale-catalog references organized by collecting theme for many years. I finally decided to improve those theme pages by including relevant books. To link the themes together I created this web page http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/themes.html with two goals: 1) Give beginners an idea of the wide variety of ancient coins and potential collection themes. 2) List reference works collectors could consult to learn more, or much more, about those themes. I hope to improve those reference pages (I solicit your suggestions). For example, one theme might be "specific victories": Denarius of Marcus Aurelius (AD 141-161-180) citing his Sarmatian victory with "DE SARM" in exergue and the date TRP XXXI = 176/7. A pile of arms from the defeated foe. Here is one more piece of advice. If you have some idea of what you might collect (maybe by viewing my page, or reading a thread) that you can describe in words, enter those words in the search engine (in the bar of links near the top of this page) and see what has been shown and written using those terms. My main page for beginners of "Frequently Asked Questions": http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis and my main educational site: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ which has a page of links to other sites. I invite you to post your advice for beginners on this thread. Report this Post to the Staff

Justinokay Pillar of the Community United States 564 Posts	Posted 12/30/2017 7:49 pm An advice I would give them is don't believe in all ebay listings! Some of them are intended at newbies in the field which can: 1) Significantly inflate the value of a coin 2) Fraud the rarity of the coin with catchy headings (e.g. "Super Rare", "Scarce",etc.) 3) Lie about the authenticity of the coin accompanied by interesting background stories (e.g. "I am not a collector or dealer, unknown authenticity", "Got these passed down") * I'm not saying that all listings with these phrases will be untrustworthy, some sellers may be honest * Short: Make sure you are buying from a trustworthy source, that offers some sort of guarantee to the buyer. This can provide comfort to the mind when something happens with the coin when you actually get it in hand. Report this Post to the Staff
oriole Pillar of the Community Canada 5244 Posts	Posted 12/30/2017 7:57 pm As an another bit of advice for the new collector, I would advise them to avoid large purchases of anything until their knowledge increases enough to recognize good and bad deals. If in doubt, dip your toes in before jumping in. Buy something small, and as a test, try to sell it back to someone (even if you plan to keep it). If you are shocked by the offer, do more reading/ research, or re-consider your collecting interests. Report this Post to the Staff
echizento Moderator United States 23731 Posts	Posted 12/30/2017 8:04 pm Warren your reference sites have been extremely helpful to novice and experienced collectors. Thank you for all your work. Report this Post to the Staff
silverado Valued Member United States 187 Posts	Posted 12/30/2017 10:13 pm Report this Post to the Staff
FVRIVS RVFVS Pillar of the Community United States 3443 Posts	Posted 12/31/2017 05:52 am My advice to the ancients beginner is to start with a modest budget. Little "gems" can still be found in the $10-20 range with some effort. Personally I enjoy scrolling through endless listings of ancients that seem to go on and on ! The longer the better ! If you find spending a few hours simply looking at the coin listings to be boring or tedious ........ then perhaps ancients aren't really what you want to do ! Avoid rarities ! There is no shame in owning a beautiful common variety. Always be partial to quality ! If you see a common type denarius of Marcus selling for $20-5 but also see another that is much superior to it but costs nearly double or more keep in mind that you will almost never think back and say "I should have bought the crappy one" Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ...... But avoid coins with serious issues Coins that have damaged areas like serious scratches or heavily corroded spots will probably make you have second thoughts. Lastly Think of your coins as an 'art' collection and look for things that please your eyes. Coins with that "eye appeal" quality are the ones that you will cherish most ! Don't buy to impress other people ! Buy to impress yourself. Report this Post to the Staff
DavidUK Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2624 Posts	Posted 12/31/2017 09:57 am I will contradict Rufus a little and say you don't have to go for cheapies (providing you are a coin collector already and perhaps moving into ancients) The reason I say that is with modern coins I accumulated a large number of coins that don't mean very much to me whereas with the ancients I accumulated a much smaller number of more valuable coins that were more meaningful. Sorting prospective types into cheapest first on v-coins one can get an idea of the price spread for the more common coins and choose something with a good balance of eye appeal to price. What to collect is an interesting topic though... I started with recognizable historical figures such as Alexander the great and Hadrian. Though some specialise I wanted a selection of notable coins from different regions and time periods so I tried to make up pages based on themes (Ancient Greek Silver, Ancient Greek Bronze, Roman, Byzantine, Celtic, Medieval...etc) doing this made me realise that the coins I liked best were the Greek ones so that area expanded faster than the others. This thread might be extremely interesting for all, including newbies as it links to several themed threads where people posted their favourite coins. http://goccf.com/t/266369 Personally I think it should be a sticky, these threads are interesting enough to revisit repeatedly. Report this Post to the Staff
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For Beginners Who Ask "What Should I Collect?"