I was hoping to convince you to consider collecting ancient coins, but after reading what I wrote I missed the boat on that goal but here it is anyway.

I have been collecting coins for 59 years and have totally embraced the hobby. For many years I collected only US until I simply got sick and tired when looking over any one of my sets and seeing numerous coins that all looked identical differing only by a mint mark or a change in the numbers forming the date. Was I collecting coins or dates and mint marks? I then converted my entire collection over to a type set. And that was fun, each coin varied from the other and I got to define what my type set should contain. It got to the point after several years where all I had left was holes for coins I simply could never afford. So then I turned to a collection that took on the world. I simply purchased coins and medals from anywhere and everywhere that I truly wanted to own and this was really fun. When I retired I had to sell off most of my collection to augment my retirement income. I did however want to remain active collecting coins. In 2009 I turned to ancient coins. All I can say is that I wish I had started collecting ancient coins a lot earlier. It is a fantastic area of numismatics. There are numerous ways of collecting these coins. Ancient coinage can be grouped into Greek Civic, Greek Empires, Celtic, Roman Republic, Roman Imperial, Roman Provincial, Roman Provincial-Judaea and Byzantine. These are just the broad categories and all can be subdivided if you want to specialize.

What is so special about these coins? Well first there is the history surrounding these coins you can always fantasize that your coin was carried by Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. But one factor that draws me to these coins is that many of these early ancient coins are true miniature works of art and some have never been surpassed in beauty during the more than 2000 years that have passed since they were struck. In addition, when it comes to collecting ancient coins one is truly collecting the coin and not the grade. There is no MS-70 freshly produced by the mint. Catalogue values for bronze ancients are usually provided for the grades of Fine and Very Fine and for silver and gold in Very Fine and XF. Why? Because in the case of bronzed coins Fine is the typical and/or minimum preferred grade and gold and Silver the typical and/or minimum preferred grade is VF. That does not mean AU and mint state coins do not exist, the grades for the coins in my collection range from Fine to Mint State with the average grade for the entire collection being XF and an average cost per coin of under $100 (one cost me over $500 and two cost me over $400 so you know a lot of my coins cost well under $100 and are in nice grades for ancients).

There are so many different designs available (even for the same issuer) that you should never have two coins with the same design in your collection. And for as long as these coins have been collected they are still routinely finding new specimens. I have only been collecting ancients for about 4-1/2 years and in that short time I have been able to pick up some very nice rare pieces. Because I have limited funds my collection right now contains only 97 coins. However, once I get back the coins from my latest submittals to NGC that number will grow to about 110 coins.

I purchase almost all my coins from eBay (this is because I live in Vermont and don't have access to a dealer in ancient coins). If you are patient and put in the time you can make some great purchases on eBay.

Are there problems collecting ancient coins? Yes. As with any collectable you have to worry about fakes. But then you also have bronze disease, tooling in addition to 15 factors related to strike that can influence the coins desirability and 27 factors related to the coin's surface. Finding information whether for attribution or pricing is darn near impossible. The number of books needed is mind blowing and none are cheap. I am disappointed that NGC does not provided attribution for a fee. Then there is the issue of valuations, the must commonly used references were produced by David Sear and all are at least 15 years old (when you include the time it takes to produce the reference) and older. I complained about the lack of pricing info to someone I met on the Forum web site (if you get into ancient coins you will become familiar with this site) and this was his response "Price on ancients is completely arbitrary, what is it worth to you?" That is like trying to buy a mint state 1916-D for $100 by telling the owner or dealer that is all it is worth to me!!!!!!!!!! Where do these people come from?

Buying NGC certified ancients can ensure that the ancient coins you buy are worth owning. But be warned, buying raw ancients from a big well known auction house offers no protection. Three of my most expensive raw purchases were from the U.S.'s two largest dealers/auction houses and all three were misrepresent in the auction listings. One of these auction houses claimed that physical impairments were subjective!!!! For example, Oh we felt that the graffito did not have to be mentioned since it was very light and contemporary to the coin!!!! That is being subjective about physical impairments, i.e. knowing it is there but feeling you don't have to state it. I however preferred purchasing raw ancients. There is no way I could have purchased many of my better ancients had they been certified prior to me buying them. Since NGC has started certify ancients they have been easier to sell but also the prices have definitely gone up for certified coins. It is also evident that many buyers and sellers of NGC certified coins don't understand how to use the scores assigned for strike and surface.

Well if you want to check out the types of coins that can be collected under the ancient umbrella go to Custom Sets Ancient Coins and check out:

The Goldsaint set, and

The two Aspen Park sets

I pick these sets because close-up photos of all the coins in the sets are provided. You can also check out my set if you want RAM-VT.

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