Ancient Beginner Collector Looking For Some Answers Please

Welcome to the forum, and to ancient coin collecting. You've got some very broad and general questions there that need entire books to answer properly. I'll try to give you some brief yet useful answers.


As a general rule, the "value" of a coin is determined by supply and demand - basic economics.

"Supply" is determined by three key factors: how many of the coins were originally made, how many are likely to have survived to this day, and how many of those survivors are actually available for ancient coin collectors to purchase. Coins that were struck in large numbers, coins that had large hoards buried and coins that circulated in countries that do not have strict anti-collector laws are all going to be more abundant than coins for which these conditions do not apply.

On the demand side, we have all sorts of things come into play, mostly to do with what people want to collect. Many ancients collectors want to collect "one from each emperor" - so coins issued in the names of the emperor's wives, children, friends and other mambers of the Imperial Family are less wanted.

A famous emperor also has an effect on the price. Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors are collectively known as the "Twelve Caesars"; these coins are in general more expensive than equally rare or common coins from "non-Twelve" emperors. Emperor Tiberius is named in the Bible, so "Biblical coin collectors" add to the demand for coins of this emperor.


Again, speaking generally. Almost all the ancient coins that survive today were buried in hoards. If the Empire is strong and expanding, the people that buried the coins often were able to come back and dig them up again. But in times of war or as the Empire was shrinking, the people that buried the coins never came back for their property. So, coins from the later, more chaotic periods in the empire's history tend to be more abundant than coins from the more stable periods. Thus, coins of the "Twelve Caesars" period (1st century AD) tend to be scarcer than coins of the time of Valerian, or Constantine (3rd and 4th centuries AD).


You'd pretty much have to either ask an expert whether your newly-cleaned coin is rare or not, or become an expert yourself. You should be aware that buying uncleaned coins, cleaning them up and then selling them is not a quick and easy way to make money. All too often you can spend weeks carefully cleaning a coin only to find it's not worth much more than what you paid for it.


Again, speaking generally, and taking into account the factors I mentioned earlier. But an emperor that ruled for a long time will tend to be more commonly encountered than one that only ruled briefly. And a widely-recognized emperor will also tend to be commoner than one that was a usurper and only recognized as emperor in one small part of the Empire. Thus, coins of Constantine the Great and Constantius II are extremely common in uncleaned lots, while only two coins of the brief usurper emperor Domitian II have ever been found, anywhere.


I'm not quite sure what you're asking, there. But as a general rule, the value of an ancient coin has very little to do with it's composition. The two extremely rare Domitian II coins I mentioned earlier are both made of bronze. But even the commonest ancient silver and gold coins are worth many times more than their bullion content value, even with today's high spot metal prices, unless they're so badly damaged that they can't be identified at all.

Hope this helps.

Just wanted to a fellow Michigander to CCF.Where abouts are you in Michigan? I'm in Arenac county.
John1

to the community and to ancient coin collecting.

Thanks to the Internet most of your questions can be answered on line. There are many excellent web sites that will help you understand this area of collecting. There are also many excellent books on the subject, some at minimal cost (Wayne Sayles books & Sears), and others at higher costs (ERIC and RIC). I would recommend getting some books first before you start buying coins.

I like buying uncleaned coins, I enjoy the process of cleaning them and uncovering whats under all that dirt. Don't expect to find any gold of silver coins in the uncleaned lots. They have already been picked out by the diggers before they are packaged and shipped. However you can from time to time find a rare bronze.

Enjoy collecting.

Thanks for all of your help guys. Greatly appreciated. I currently just ordered my first 10 uncleaned coins and 3 cleaned bronze AEs to start off. Hopefully all goes well and I will definitely be using the information given by you all to establish id tags and better understand the coins I may across in the future. Again, thank you very much and happy coin collecting :)

The ancients bug is what got me interested in numismatics.

FYI. I use both distilled water and olive oil to soak the coins (depending on the coin). I find that using a brass pick or a diamond dipped dental pick (600 grit are the mechanical tools that I us the most. I always work on the coin when it is wet. I have to remind myself to be patient when I am cleaning. I have one coin that has been soaking in olive oil for a year. It is coming along great and all I have done is soak it.

Definitely check out the great advice on this forum before you start restoring (cleaning) your a ancient treasure! And have fun!

Good information and suggestions.

Here is my contribution. I think collecting coins of the the first five Emperors of Rome -- Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero -- is a great way to start off. I have a page An Introduction for beginning collectors that might be of some help.

Edit: of course you might want to start off by buying the less expensive somewhat worn copper coins of these Emperors which are readily available and often very reasonably priced.

James