Hi Jarret,
Welcome to the
discussion board. More importantly, welcome to the hobby!
I am not familiar with online coin classes. However I can reflect on what helped me when I first learned about
ancient coins and what may have been helpful if I
had someone to guide me through it.
I would start with understanding the basics. You can easily get lost in the detail.
Denominations. Easier to navigate the terrain if you know what a
sestertius, ass,
dupondius,
drachm,
tetradrachm etc. is.
Different 'eras' of
Roman emperors and general understanding of different
Roman emperors. The FORVM
shop categorises
roman emperors in this way, which is a handy quick guide, if you are trying to remember who is an 'Adoptive Emperor'. Many collect coins of certain emperor. You might choose to do the same. So handy to develop a knowledge of which exist and which may appeal to you.
Difference between:
Roman Republic,
Roman Provincial /
Greek Imperial, and Roman Imperial.
Difference between different Greek Kingdoms: Macedon Kingdom.
Ptolemaic Kingdom.
Seleucid Kingdom. etc.
Different greek cities / regions which minted coins. Go to
wildwinds.com at the following link:
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/i.htmlYou can also browse
greek coins in the FORVM
shop by
geography.
Initially helpful to me:
'Handbook of Ancient Greek and
Roman Coins: An Official
Whitman Guidebook Paperback' by Zander H.
Klawans. A short affordable text which exposed me to the various kinds of greek and
roman coins. By memory there is a short biography at the back for each Roman Emperor.
I followed this up by
buying David R. Sear's
Greek Coins and Their Values. FORVM
Shop usually has this in stock.
Dough Smith's excellent website on
ancient coins (now hosted by FORVM):
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/It covers many different areas, from grading through to photography.
www.romancoin.infoMany start with late
roman coins (I certainly did). From this site you can learn the basics of identifying legends, emperors and
reverse types and thus attributing your coins. The accessibility of late
romans in higher grades makes them a great
choice for beginners to the hobby.
This
discussion board has been of invaluable assistance to me - both from reading historical posts on various subjects, following the
fakes board and improving my ability to detect
fakes, through to asking questions, or posting a coin for comment and learning something which I did not previously know.
Finally, I have plugged the FORVM
shop above several times and this is intentional. The FORVM
discussion board and all related resources are made available and supported through the
shop which Joe, the proprietor, operates. A great place to start in building your
collection and a place to regularly return to and find
new coins to add to your
collection.
Hope this is of some service to you despite it not answering your primary question.
Peter