These are a treasure indeed.
If I were a quarter century younger and were to try to collect another category it probably would be Republican, which also would give me the excuse to properly master the history, or at least to try to. I used to feel proud of having worked/earned my way through three degrees at a good university, but in retirement I have learned that I stole the leisure for thought and reading just to do so.
Not that learning the Danubian and western Anatolian lands from their coins has not been a great privilege and one that no professors then even at UC Berkeley could have taught me.
All I want is another life to lead. Anyway, thank you Andrew.
Pat L.
Dear
PatI'm particularly pleased with your comments, which I value especially as your knowledgeable contributions to
Forum tend to be from month to month rather daily. I was struck by this: "I used to feel proud of having worked/earned my way... but in retirement I have learned that I stole the leisure for thought and reading just to do so." I've recently got off the forced-work treadmill (as of 18 months ago). Oddly, I feel more intent than ever to make sure I don't waste my unscheduled days. The lack of a timetable set by others doesn't automatically lead to more personal productivity, as evenings tend to get wasted in front of a big or small or tiny screen rather than by reading Polybius, or visiting
Greece, or staring at the sky and thinking. I will dare to contradict you on one point however - you should remain immensely proud of the
work done and degrees gained, because these are the hard
work of ploughing, planting, watering and weeding, without which the harvest feast won't taste so sweet. The 25 years I spent working in
Africa, the middle east, south and
north America and
Asia have been the perfect preparation for my current life contemplating the beginnings of European civilisation, if only because I've seen how civilisations grow. Each time I visit
Lagos I'm struck how close it seems to the ancient
Rome I know, in every way that matters.
I ask others who replied to take these comments as my thanks to you all. I would like to append some thoughts on collecting.
Despite collecting
Republican coins for 30 years, my collection has constantly been churned and upgraded and refocused. Two-thirds of the coins in my current collection (in cost as well as number terms) have been acquired in the last five years, and I'm sure I could have made the same statement in 2010 as regards what I added in 2005-2010. Others don't do it this way, either because they are disciplined enough to go for the best coins early which means forgoing numbers for
quality, or they are undisciplined enough to grab and keep every variety they've ever bought, and even include duplicates. There's no
merit to any one way to go about forming what will be the final manifestation of your coin collection. Some ways are more efficient - the disciplined quality-from-day-1 approach - and some ways are more delightful - the "if I don't have the
type I want it now" approach. There's no especial
merit to my approach either, which has been one of a "designed collection", where I
had a particular view of what I wanted my collection to look like in the future, and made conscious decisions about which compromises were right for me, and which not. I have been taking my inspiration from sources such as
Robert Carson's 1978 book "Principal Coins of the
Romans" that selects and illustrates 319 carefully thought-through
Roman Republican coin
types, and from various sale catalogues of famous collectors such as RBW,
Martini,
Haeberlin and many others. In each of these cases my goal has been to do better - to the extent that I could within my resources - than any previous collector in that collector's
area of weakness. For example, in having a comprehensive bronzes collection, I've bettered
Haeberlin and
Hersh, both of whom regarded the
area as too difficult. The silver fraction coverage betters most dedicated
denarius collectors such as Nicolas. RBW is perhaps the toughest to match given that
his collection was replete with high-end
denarius examples, but I'm trying to in different ways. My bronzes though far fewer in numbers are significantly better in their
average quality than those of RBW. RBW ceded gold at an early date and dropped it from
his collecting interests although all
his gold coins have been integrated into the book of
his colllection, but I'm
still adding an occasional
aureus, often nicked, worn and ex jewellery. As for silver, my especial trick as you'll have seen from this acquisitions summary is to look for large-flan
fine style beauties with perfect surfaces, such as the Pompey Varro, the Pomponius Rufus, or the Casca Longus above, but with some considerable wear. For each I paid the
price for a nice VF and get a coin than on sheer beauty can beat many an EF. Through such selections my aim for many years has been to match or beat the best
collections in the areas where they are least strong, because I surely could never beat them in the areas they are most strong, given that
FDC Imperatorial types will always remain out of reach.
Provenance hunting is another way to add collector-value to modest coins. I like
buying coins with no known
provenance, and then making discoveries. As for resources, many of the coins illustrated in this
thread come from disbursing a one-time lump sum over a couple of years, others from the proceeds of upgrade sales, and the rest from raiding my monthly income. So I really can't afford to be
buying coins like this. But that's
fine. As a collector, I advocate all financial measures short of bankruptcy (or maybe even including bankruptcy) in order to improve my collection.
I want to be just like
Greece.
Andrew