Numism > Help For the New Ancient Coin Collector

New Beginnings

(1/2) > >>

Greg W:
Hello,

My name is Greg and I am new to collecting Roman coins. I live in the  United Kingdom in the southwest of England just outside the ancient city of Exeter in the county of Devon. I have always had a fascination about Roman history so it wasn't a big leap to be interested in the social history associated with Roman coins.

Following recent surgery I have had to find a more sedentary interest/hobby so I decided to start collecting low value Roman coins for social history interest rather than monetary value.

As a start I have purchased some inexpensive uncleaned coins believed to be from Eastern Europe and a book or two on the subject. As yet I have to learn how to clean these coins properly which I see some interesting information on the subject is on this site.

My eventual aim is to collect coins that were in circulation at the time in the UK but I am not sure what I should be looking for so if any member can give me some advice I would be truly grateful.

I look forward any replies to my post and the beginning of a very interesting hobby.

Regards,
Greg

SC:
Greg,

Welcome to the forum, and a great hobby.

In terms of uncleaned coins - one of the best things you can do is spend time reading through the old messages on the Uncleaned section of the forum.

As for Roman coins used in Britain I would suggest getting a copy of Richard Reece's "Coinage in Roman Britain".

SC

Ron C2:
Welcome to Forum!

I would also suggest a read through the Numiswiki on uncleaned coins here: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Uncleaned%20Ancient%20Coins

Roman rule in Britain effectively ended in 410 CE, so generally speaking, any roman coin from about 43 CE to around 410 CE could feasibly have circulated in Rome after being freshly minted.  In reality, earlier and later coins could also have circulated there unofficially or as part of old coinage still in circulation with the populace in 43.  Practically speaking though, fiat coinage such as bronzes dated after 410 would have been an exception in Britain after 410. 

I would also suggest to you that there are 4 centuries of rich Roman numismatic history associated with Britain - you may want to give this some thought and select a particular theme, emperor, period, denomination or dynasty to give your collection some focus and bound things.  Something that speaks to you.  You could very quickly end up all over the place and feel a bit rudderless if you have no specific focus.

Hope that helps!

Joe Sermarini:
Welcome to Forum Ancient Coins!

Virgil H:
Welcome. There is a great Roman tradition in Britain. Focusing on themes can be hard (at least it is for me), but you have a head start as far as your interests go. You can get as specialized as you want. Getting uncleaned coins has been more miss than hit for me (and not cost effective). As someone said, there is a lot of great info in that section. I think the main issue is getting "real" uncleaned coins, meaning that most have been looked at and are not simply out of the ground. As an aside, my first ancient coin purchase was here on Forum and is a British tribal coin of the Iceni dated between 10-43 AD. The Romans were quite a thorn in their side very quickly after that.

Virgil

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page