Antiques & Collectibles Banner Exchange
Antiques & Collectibles Banner Exchange
I'm always gathering more information on ancient coins that I hope to add to the page soon! Stay tuned!!!
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It seems as though I have always had a fascination with coins and their history. I can remember seeing pictures of ancient coins in books as a child and thinking that these are so old that the only place I would see them is in books or in a museum. But, I still wanted to collect coins and thought that maybe I could at least be able to collect some older U.S. coins. So, that is what I did.
Recently, I have been fortunate enough to find a source for some ancient coins that I could afford, and so, I have been saving some of these and building my own collection. I am new to the ‘ancient’ coin scene and am now slowly learning about them. I’d like to share what I am learning about them here. I hope to list some of the coins that I have here and maybe get some comments from people about them. I would also like to hear from others who collect these or would like to.
The coins that I have come directly from the source of the find and are ancient Roman coins for the most part, with some Greek and also other ancient coins. I have mostly concentrated on trying to identify some of those that are in better condition. I would like to help others who are interested in starting a collection of these. As I grew older, I can remember seeing and hearing about doctors and lawyers who had collections of these coins, and how they had bought them for a few hundred dollars. As an investment for those who could afford them, these coins appreciated in value at a very high rate. I now better understand this.
You can hold them, look at them, enjoy them for their historic & asthetic value as well as any other intrinsic value. Some liken having old or ancient coins to a 'time-machine' that can take a person back to when that coin was used. Many imagine the people who might have handled/used an old coin that they have now, or even the persons who may have made the coins that they now own.
Some 'low-cost' coins can be fakes or have no numismatic value to them whatsoever. Do not think that just because you may have found a source for these coins or opportunity to buy cheaply that you have stumbled onto a "bargain." There are a lot of fakes and "junk" coins out there and you CAN buy these coins inexpensively, but many of these 'cheap' coins of less than $10.00 each are generally worthless if they cannot be identified by any means. Don't waste your time and money. 'Test' a
source out first by buying only a coin or two if you don't have the option of viewing the coins you are buying first. Ancient coins, just like other coins, that are so worn or in such bad shape as to not be identifiable by any of several means, are NOT "investment quality," and should be avoided. You want coins that can be identified, at least in SOME fashion.
Yes, there are a lot to collecting ancient coins, and many of the basic things that you should know are never spoken about! Not by dealers, because they want to get RID of lesser grade coins, etc. And not by collectors, simply because they just do not realize some of the differences! For example, dealers won't tell you whether the coins you buy were found by a metal detector in the soil or in large caches buried or hidden in pots or jars. This, believe it or not, makes a lot of difference in the value of a coin in many cases. For one thing, a coin that has lain in the ground for centuries, no matter what surrounding conditions are,
is going to take on some of the minerals in the soil. It starts to 'crystalize'! It turns from 'metal' to a very brittle piece of mineralized/fossilized coin/metal. It may still LOOK like a coin, but it is no longer solid metal!!! If you were to try to bend one of these coins, it would not. It would break like a dry cracker! And, THAT, is what they will not tell you!!! You do not want to buy those kind of coins if at all possible, if you ever do, you do not want to think that it will have much chance of increasing in value. There are many of these coins around and no one knows a thing about this. But I am telling you about it here!
To be fair, there are more reasons why Ancient Coin Dealers won't tell you about certain things, including what I had just referred to above. And, that is simply that their time (like all of ours) is valuable. Many times they will sell coins in 'bulk' or in 'unattributed' lots simply because it is the more cost efficient thing for them to do. Sometimes, they do this to offer you a 'bargain' just to get you started (so that you will buy more coins from them later). It is often not very easy to try and tell the differences between a coin that was found in the soil and one that has been found in a clay vessel sealed with wax. There are,
in some or many cases, some obvious differences (such as the coins being encrusted or 'dirty'), but if the soil and other signs have been 'cleaned off' it could take much time and energy to make a determination for each coin. Frankly, coin dealers, any coin dealer, just does not have the time to do that and if they did, guess who they would have to charge for doing so... yes, the customer. So, there is a 'good' and a 'bad' side to this. But if you are armed with this knowledge beforehand, you will at least have a better idea of what to look out for and of if what you have is a better quality coin or not.
Many of these coins are scarce or rare and are sought after by the rich and by museums, as well as private collectors. Coins are ‘witnesses’ to the past and have aesthetic value as well. Only a certain amount of each of any kind of them were made, and there will never be any more of those original coins. The population of the world in ancient times was much smaller, and, therefore, less coins were minted. This automatically makes them much more rare and valuable than later coins.
PLEASE, do NOT send me images or attachments. If you have an
J. Duran, arcclr@hotmail.com
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Check out my Ancient Coin and Artifact Listings...
Beginnings
Good Sources
Collectors in the Know: Doctors & Lawyers
Coins = Tangible Wealth
Beware, do not be fooled!
What Ancient Coin Dealers Won't Tell You!
More on Differences in Certain Coins
Rarity & Value
Email Listing
Links to Ancient Coins
Additional Resources
A Brief History of Roman Emperors, Rulers, and Their Families
Beginnings
Good Sources
Collectors in the Know: Doctors & Lawyers
Coins = Tangible Wealth
Beware, do not be fooled!
What Ancient Coin Dealers Won't Tell You!
More on Differences in Certain Coins
Rarity & Value
image that you'd like me to look at put it on your web page
and send me the URL. Thank you. since 10/14/96.