Your right Apostate but it is a double edged sword. Yes they are cheaper but their is a lot more to disscuss about them but less people to disscuss them.
People collect ancients for diffrent reasons but mostly looks and known
history,
Byzantine Coins are the last great frontier for collectors, especially the later time periods, you can
still as a collector make finds that no one has found before, it was only in the 80's when
Constantine XI coins were found, the last Emperor of the empire. Found in a dealers tray at a
coin show.
The last 400 hundred years of the empire are
still being put togethor for coins that makes it interesting but very difficult to find reffrences and none are
complete. Another agravation are finding the coins from dealers but only to find them misatributed, yes I have also got some great deals this way but more disapointment.
Many times I have to buy
bulk lots just to get one coin I see in the lot, I resell the others on
Ebay. I have written over a dozen dealers with want lists only never to receive any reply. This is from the largest to middle sized companies dealing in ancients and
Byzantine.
As for looks, I got into
Byzantine coins when I started
selling abstract art, I personally do not believe Byz coin to be of less artistic
quality than
Roman but just a diffrent abstract
style.
So these are the complaints of someone who is just trying to fill in the blanks for an exciting time period that gets no respect. Forgive my rant