Before You Collected Byzantine Coins.

[Simon]

We have not had a poll for a while; I was curios where other Byzantine coin collectors started in their coin collecting.

Did one thing lead to another or did you start with them?

Just a fun poll and an interesting way to learn more about others  in the field .

[Simon]

It has been an interesting poll, granted we only have 15 responses so far but it does give us an indication on how people have collected. I would also say the knowledge on the Byzantine board is very diversified.

I was one of the people who voted starting at Roman coinage, my first focused collection was Empresses on Roman coins, I had a nice collection and when I was satisfied, I sold it off. I started becoming interested in Byzantine coins after reading the history of the Roman empire and came to the understanding it did not fall until 1453.  I also really liked the fact that it was an open field, new finds have been proven to be in most Byzantine  collectors experiences and I am sure we have many more to go.

If you feel like sharing about your collecting experiance, please do. This board makes this hobby less of a solitary experiance,

Simon

[Obryzum]

The only coins I collected before were Lincoln cents in my youth.  I was 7 years old, and I never got serious, so do not think that counts.  I selected "nothing" in the poll. 

I bought my first Byzantine coin, a solidus of Justinian, while I was reading John Julius Norwich's three volume narrative history of Byzantium.  This was a few years after I became Orthodox.  I think I bought the coin around 2005, back when the price of gold was much lower.  In those days the common gold solidi of Justinian, Justin II and Maurice regularly sold below $200.  I was shocked that an authentic gold artifact could be so cheap, and I felt compelled to buy it. 

Then a hyperpyron of John II, who is actually a saint in the Orthodox Church, which made the purchase decision a little easier.  Then a solidus of Basil I, the earliest "affordable" Byzantine gold with an icon of Christ.  Then I resolved to restrict my budget and fill in the other emperors with bronze and silver coins . . . .  With some exceptions, of course, along the way.

For me it has been about the history more than the coins.  The coins make the history come alive in a more tangible way.  For me, when I get out a few coins to take another look, the next stop is typically my bookcase where I keep all of my history books . . .

[joma-tk]

This was a few years after I became Orthodox... 

...For me it has been about the history more than the coins... 

Dear Robert

Since you are Orthodox ( ) and love history, I strongly recommend to visit some day a few of the Mount Athos monasteries.
It will be like living back during the Byzantine era.

tk

[Sap]

I'm a general coin collector, ancient through to modern.  I've been a coin collector since I was about eight years old (1980). I obtained my first Ancient coin in 1983, but didn't get my first "true" Byzantine coin until 2000.

A year earlier, in 1999, I'd bought what a local dealer had said was a "Byzantine" coin, but it was mis-identified; turned out to be a Trebizond silver asper. I had a hard time identifying that one, with no books, no Internet and no experts I could ask. Took me a couple of months and at the end of it all, I still didn't own a "true Byzantine coin".

I now have 12767 coins in my collection, 31 of which are Byzantine (plus two from Trebizond and one from the Latin Empire).

[wileyc]

I collected US pennies as a youth.

    Many years later I bought a metal detecter for my son and some "roman coins" off the internet. He seemed not intrigued as why one would find roman coins buried in the Pacific Northwest, but I was as to holding a piece of history and the stories that built those histories. One of them was a Justin II half follis......

 I seem to spend now as much on reading or buying books as I do the coins themselves.

cw

[joma-tk]

I was 14 years old.
I was with my father in a bookstore when I spotted this magazine.
Its title:
"Numismatic Chronicle'   
I dont know why but I felt I had to buy it...

Rest is history

tk

[Simon]

This was a fun poll and Thanks to all who voted and to those who shared. 

Simon

[stevex6]

"Multiple types" was a bit of a cop-out (sadly, I chose it)

I collected Modern (as a kid and again in my 40's) => then I found ancients, The Dark Side (Roman & Greek) => then the rest followed after a while (medieval and byzantine joined-in and entered the ol' melting-pot)

They're all cool