Get started collecting ancients right now!

 I’ve only been collecting ancients for a little over 5 years. Before my preoccupation with them, I felt quite ignorant on how to get started. I was left with many assumptions, such as ancients generally being expensive, undecipherable, or teeming with fakes. These assumptions were wrong! Here’s how to get started immediately:

-       - The first and paramount task is to not buy the coin, but BUYTHE BOOK!  That’s a common saying in our hobby, considering the plethora of insider knowledge involved and scammers out there. I cannot emphasize this point enough, and furthermore keep in mind that the learning should be continuous. Scholarly works and articles in addition to more hobby-oriented material abounds for most areas of numismatics.

-        - Study the Market: search eBay listings (completed ones too) and study what common coins sell for, and sellers to avoid. The more studying here, the better your prospects will be in avoiding scammers and obtaining hidden gems.

-        - Study eBay or other listings of graded coins: The two main TPGs (Third-Party Graders), NGC and PCGS, are the way to go. Their grading is conservative and market-acceptable, so any other TPGs should be avoided unless you’re confident in evaluating the coin by its own merits. The reason to study graded coins is twofold:

o   1) You learn how ancients are graded, sometimes only accounting for the level of detail left on the coin. Other times, the TPG will breakdown not just the technical grade/wear of the coin, but will also rate the surfaces or mention other phenomena like scratches, accretions, etc.

o   2) Besides being eye candy, graded ancients also help you learn the portraits of rulers and design types. In other words, it’s a good way to acquaint yourself with what’s circulating out there.

Delmatius and his elusive coinage

 

Late Roman Imperial coinage is appealing to collectors due to its abundance and affordability. The Constantinian dynasty is a common focus in this area of the hobby, since it comprises many historical figures, reverse types, and themes to collect. The well-known Gloria Exercitus series is ubiquitous, so finding the scarcer Delmatius issue of this type is fulfilling.

 There are two respects in which Dalmatius’ imperial roman, bronze coinage is elusive: generally, regarding any type appearing in the market; and specifically, his Gloria Exercitus (Glory to the Army) two-military standards issue. The latter issue’s lack of visibility will be a main contention in this essay, ignoring his rare gold issues.

 Quick Bio

Delmatius (or sometimes spelled Dalmatius) was a nephew of Constantine the Great. He oversaw Greece from 335-337 AD. After Constantine’s death, both Delmatius and his brother Hanniballianus were likely killed upon the orders of Constantius II, Constatine’s longest-reigning son from 337-361 AD.

 General Collecting

Delmatius’ most common and virtually only available coin is the Gloria Exercitus bronze coin, namely it’s smaller module with only one military standard between two soldiers on the reverse side of the coin.

In AORTA, an encyclopedia of Roman imperial coinage by Rasiel Suarez (2011), the author designates Delmatius’ coinage as generally common. However, he does mention a problem of his coins appearing regularly on the market. The “C” or common rating for Delmatius’ coinage in the market in AORTA belies the collector experience and Suarez’ own admission of scarcity in the market.

Since gold is beyond my collecting means, and silver is even more rare in the later empire, bronze and billon coins are always my target. Delmatius officially has only one bronze coin type, his Gloria Exercitus type.

 Gloria Exercitus Type

Among Delmatius’ AE 3/4 coin entries in AORTA, 23 records out of 92 are specifically for his two standards Gloria Exercitus type. In other words, 25% of his bronze coinage in the catalog! In around 15 years of collecting, I have only seen (virtually or in person) one of these types with two standards. Just one!

Rasiel indicates 11 out of 13 mints issued this coin module. David Sear in Roman Coin (Volume IV, 2011) indicates the price difference between the one-standard and two-standards coins is for VF $35-40 versus $40-50, respectively. XF is $100-120 versus $120-140. So, the price disparity is negligible despite the two-standards issue being almost non-existent in the market.

 Conclusion

Let’s assume my experience is just anecdotal . I then suggest you check E-bay, it’s current and completed listings. Check VCoins, check anywhere. If you run across the Gloria Exercitus, two-standards module for Delmatius, I suggest you purchase it before I do!

Grading Ancient Coins

 If you are familiar with grading US coins, let alone world coins, you're ahead of the game.

If you can grade world coins too, you're further ahead. 

Ancient coins usually have suffered some environmental damage or influence to a larger degree than modern coins because of their history. So with ancients you have two primary aspects to consider when evaluating a coin: 1) it's wear or technical grade; and 2) it's present condition as affected by environmental factors. 

With modern coins, you have to be cognizant of number 2, i.e. environmental factors like encrustation, porosity, corrosion, glue, etc.- but with moderns these issues are less common. 

Ancient coin condition or its level of preservation is always paramount along with the wear or technical grade.  

Take for example this Constans late imperial bronze coin - how would you grade it?

Here's my answer: about VF (Very Fine) details, full patination but rough in spots.

When grading an ancient, you want to look at both sides, however. The final grade typically averages the two sides, but the obverse or heads side carries more weight as with modern coin grading. 

How about this Licinius bronze coin below:

My answer: XF details evident by full hair details, sharp facial and crown features, smooth/unworn fields around face and legend lettering, nice light-green patina. A coin of this caliber might simply be given an XF (extremely fine) grade, with no further mention of condition.

In sum, be mindful of the amount of wear a coin has and it's level of preservation or condition. For wear, you have to see many examples of a given type to know what is good detail vs more worn states. Experience is key, and this goes for discerning die wear from circulation wear also, which can sometimes complicate things. 

Practice! Look at graded coins online, validate seller descriptions, be an informed collector and you'll have grading down in no time. 

Ancient numismatics, it never gets old!!

In the past several months I've taken up ancient coins. This area includes ancient Greek coinage through the Byzantine (aka Romaion) empire, and also includes non-classical (ie non-Western) ancient coins like those from ancient Persians, Indians, Asians, etc. The Byzantine empire roughly ran through the 6th and 15th centuries, AD, so that also overlaps with medieval coinage. What sets both ancient and medieval coinage apart from modern coinage is that they were hammer-struck instead of milled/machine-struck. Ancients were also in some instances casted in molds, but these are seldom encountered.

In numismatics you often read that it's prudent to specialize in some area; for example, if you collect US coins, you would take up Barber coinage, or more specifically Barber halves or Barber dimes. It seems to me that Roman coins are the most popular, due to their abundance, affordability, Latin legends (provincial coinage tends to have a mix of Latin and Greek or just Greek though), etc. Just like with modern coins, I find all ancient coins appealing but my collection so far is largely Roman Imperial, so this starts with Augustus around 27 BC through the end of the western part of the empire around late 5th century AD.

Like moderns, ancients are graded by professional, independent companies. This phenomenon appears to be picking up a little, since the majority of encapsulated coins tend to be moderns. This may be due to the collecting proclivities of collectors, and prices for grading older coins versus moderns. I enjoy all kinds of ancient coins, including ones that have the extra protection and pleasing museum-quality aesthetic of a sealed holder, not to mention the concise attribution included on the label by an expert.

Raw ancients though are far more common, and affordable. You have two options though: purchase "uncleaned" ones or cleaned/conserved coins. My preference is the former because I find cleaning them the most fulfilling and exciting part of ancient numismatics so far. I have even started a Instagram account to exhibit my conservation practices and coins. I put "uncleaned" in quotes because I've read a few times that no ancient coins are ever acquired totally uncleaned. In other words, at some point, either during extraction from burial sites or afterwards, the coins are to some extent separated, inspected, picked at, etc. This may be true, but to collectors we are fully aware of the connotations words like cleaned, partially cleaned, and uncleaned have. When I purchase uncleaned coins, they must have obscured details due to mineralization of/outside the coin. The coins look like and are in some sense fossils. A conserved ancient is expected to be cleaned, which is the opposite of modern coins, but cleaning must be done cautiously and with least harm to natural occurring patina and/or underlying coin.

Non-collectors that I've shared my passion for ancient numismatics with are shocked sometimes to hear that uncleaned coins are so affordable and still available. Considering the many centuries of being minted and burials of coins--since banks did not exist back then--ancients are very affordable and easily obtained in encrusted states of preservation. Ancient coins are a collector's dream come true! These primary sources of ancient history are available for a few to several dollars each, or less if details are minimally showing through. Prices increase substantially depending on the popularity of the figures/emperors on the coin, its origin, and its condition or level of detail.  

There's so much depth to this area of coin collecting that it's overwhelming to non-collectors and even numismatists who haven't studied it. I only took the dive recently after several years of collecting moderns; I am glad I did though. Like with my other collecting endeavors, I've continually read up on the hobby, but also am getting more familiar with the history surrounding these coins when they circulated. There are many projects to be undertaken with ancient coins, something hard to beat in other areas of numismatics.

Interest in Coin Collecting Waning

I haven't been to a coin show in about a year. I can't remember when I last visited a coin shop either. I've read in different venues that interest in the hobby is waning, and some alarm has been raised considering the collections we have will be worth only what new generations decide in the future. I think educating others, especially youth, is a terrific and effective thing to do. But creating a lesson, finding somewhere to do it, and facilitating everything seems like a tremendous effort not many are willing to carry out. My own interest is lacking at this point, so I can't even imagine inspiring others.

One cheap endeavor I always saw at the Long Beach Coin Expo was a treasure hunt and other boring activities for kids. I believe children were supposed to get a world coin from different dealers, or some such trivial task. Suffice it to say, I've never seen many children participating in these activities. The stamp area had even worse turnout.

Others may have proposed this idea elsewhere, but I believe the US Mint should create and release random error coins into circulation, intentionally. Imagine a doubled-die obverse 2017 cent akin to the 1955 DDO cent where the date is clearly doubled. Now imagine low-mintage errors like this were released each year!

Nothing would attract more interest and potential collectors than the possibility of finding an interesting and highly collectible error coin in circulation. Various errors could be released throughout the year, with different mintages like 100 to 10,000 coins. A lot of research would be carried out on all the errors, kids would find it interesting and worthwhile, and collectors would have more coins to hunt for. It seems like just the ingredients our hobby needs.

It would actually be a misnomer to label such coins as errors. If the Mint starting releasing these kinds of coins, I believe they would be called varieties, since they were not made in error but intentionally, and they offer alternative versions (or varieties) of normal coins.


In any case, I don't think there's a better and simpler way to stimulate interest in our hobby than this. We all have our pipedreams I guess.

How does one become interested in the hobby?

This question could be rephrased in different ways. Consider the following: When does one become interested in the hobby? Or, How does someone become engaged in the hobby? Or maybe, What causes the coin collecting bug? In other words, what I'm trying to get at is that there is something that specifically occurs to incite one to start collecting coins in a serious manner. I had a small collection of coins many years ago, and I might have peered at them from time to time, but one day when I was older I became aware for the first time that I was enamored by coins. This realization might come about over a period of weeks or even months, one might argue. I think for me it was at most the former, ie weeks.

I began selling some coins my grandfather gave me on eBay. I couldn't believe how fast and how much my coins were selling for in comparison to other household items I had listed. What really sparked my interest was the fact that US coins were composed of a silver alloy in the past. I couldn't believe it! And this lasted up until the mid and late 1960s. I quickly thought of all the silver coins that may have graced my hands, without me knowing it. I had an old Red Book and studied the price guide somewhat, moved on to current magazines at the book store, and then purchased a whole slew of books to feed my growing appetite for coins! The rest is history, as they say.

There also came a point where I knew this hobby would be lifelong. That perhaps took a little longer to come forth in my mind but only because I was so busy learning and collecting coins! So, if you haven't started collecting coins with a passion, I suggest you give it a try. The easiest way might be to read a beginner's guide, like Alan Hubert's book (I forgot the name), a Dummies/Idiots guide, and so on. There's a cliché in the hobby that needs to be stated once again: Buy the book before the coin (or something like that). This is very sound advice. I want to emphasize that you should buy dozens of books because I still make mistakes occasionally when I'm out there collecting. In any case, depending on your personality type, the spark that gets you going might be a book, friend, family member, club, or the internet. Whatever it is, get going and have fun! If you've read this far, please share and let me know what got you interested in coins. Thanks.

Coin Collecting Can Be Affordable!

You may have read or heard the common remark that while coin collecting used to be the “hobby of kings,” it is now the “king of hobbies.” This is quite true. You can have a meager or massive budget for collecting, but it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes you’ll find that you aren’t spending much or anything on coins, but instead you’re just reading about them. There’s so much to learn about coins, areas to master, history to explore, that it’s easy to see why there’s a strong following behind this hobby.

Here are some ideas for the frugal collector:

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            - Bank roll hunting: Go to your local bank and search through coins. If you find a collectible coin worth keeping—an error, old denomination, or proof coin perhaps—then all you pay is face value for it.

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             - Flea markets: You can spot great deals if you’re knowledgeable. Since the hobby covers so much, sometimes you will run into coins that you’re unfamiliar with. I would suggest to use caution in these cases and only make a purchase if it’s under 20 or 30 dollars. Better yet, bring your phone and do a quick google or ebay search of the coin to see what it’s worth. A Redbook price guide is also nice to have while out treasure hunting.

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              - Study: Become more informed about some area of numismatics and then cherrypick people selling coins that you know more about. Become an expert!

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              - Ebay: I regularly look on ebay for “ending soonest” coin auctions and I also occasionally check “newly listed” coins under the “buy it now” option. You never know what’s up for sale on ebay.

These are some of my ideas. Let me know if you have any other ideas! I would like to add that not only is coin collecting affordable, you can make a profit from engaging in the hobby! Most if not all of my collection was acquired with money I made from selling coins. Some people do even better and make a living selling coins!