Question For Older Collectors

Curious to see what replies you get, Joe. If I collected Romans, I'd definitely be more interested in Provincials than Imperial or Republic. I find them so much more interesting.

I became interested in ancients around 1973. The market was very different. Perceptions of rarity and value were different. It's not a simple answer. I will say that I do remember buying nice provincials very reasonably.

For what it's worth
In the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"You are entitled to your own opinion
But you are not entitled to your own facts"
The raw numbers and the geography in this case
are not in dispute
http://savingantiquities.org/why-co...marketplace/

Collectors will always want to collect. I'd be more worried about ancient coin collecting being legislated out of existence.

We are in general agreement about this
Museums cannot simply be the repositories for each and every item recovered from each and every hole dug into the earth
Nor are museums immune to the shenanigans that occur in the real world
Two hundred years ago during the beginning of the Great golden age of museums they competed with each other and with everyone else
They financed excavations in the great search for "loot"

But what then becomes of the "loot" ?
An interesting aside ........
My entire life I have been fascinated and somewhat obsessed by the Trojan War and Henry Schliemann
Twenty years ago a found a small "fill in" story in the NYT
A young woman working an internship at the local museum found two dusty old crates stored away in the basement of the museum
No records existed of these crates
The only identification were faded shipping labels that ID'd the contents as "Purchased from Frank Calvert 1890"
The story went on to say the crates contained grey pottery of unknown origin
Now being somewhat fluent in the story I immediately recognized the name Frank Calvert !
He had owned a site in Northwest Turkey which he had been digging holes with a few locals for twenty years when a strange little man named Schliemann came looking for the site of ancient Troy
After purchasing the site he literally ripped it to shreds in the search for "the good stuff"
Unknown to Henry the engineers of Alexander had leveled the site as Alex had plans to rebuild the city of lore
Schliemann ignored Calverts advice to go slow
He also discarded most of what he found as unimportant as he dug deep into the Tel searching for the good stuff and the loot that the museums craved
The good news is modern archaeology has shown
(and which I had always suspected !) that the Tel of Hisarlik formed the acropolis of ancient Troy not the city itself ! ( thank Zeus !)

And that grey pottery the article mentions ?
It can only be the "new" type of pottery Schliemann found throughout the Aegean which he named Grey Minyan ware
The type which Frank Calvert patiently gathered for over twenty years
To think that it has been sitting less than a mile from where I live
Today my brother (MARCVS OBLIVIVS) sits on the Board of this same museum
And you know what ?
I had him inquire about these two crates
(personally I would kill to see them and actually hold a piece)
But no one seems to know what he is talking about !

The lost remains of ancient Troy were discovered sitting right next to me !
And now no one knows where they went !
Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh

My coins are are centuries older than me.
Because of this, I feel somewhat like a museum curator, rather than just a collector of ancient coins.
Thus, I feel as if I am a custodian of them, not an owner.

As far as inflation is concerned, that is the reason why I have always noted the date acquired and the price paid on the 2x2, so the real value then and now can be more accurately assessed.
Also helps with provenance, if the source is also noted.

Forty two years ago I purchased my first Copper As of Caligula
I paid $200 and was happy as a clam !
Fifteen years later I attended the NYC International and bought one two grades better for slightly more than double that !
Now twenty plus years after that (thanks to the "internets" !) I have three Copper As of Caligula two of which are a full grade better than my previous best !
The other is my Caligula-Germanicus "mule"
For these three 'gems' I paid nearly the same dollar amount that I paid for the first two so very long ago
The obscene prices I often see today are a crime
They actually abet the fraud and deceit we see all to often
Personally .........
I wish the prices would crash and I could go back to being a simple collector of Roman bronze
But to feed my 'addiction' I must peddle them too
But .......
You do what you gotta do !

PS
I almost never record the price I paid for a coin
To me it's almost irrelevant
If I can't remember what I paid for it ......
I probably paid too much !