Hello everyone!
I am a brand
new collector! Literally haven't even received the coins I bought yet! Just joined the site. I've been reading and soaking up the info on here for days to become knowledgeable about the aspects of
ancient coins. It appears to be a thrilling experience to me and the
history and story these coins can tell is endless. I am so glad I found this website! It looks like a fantastic resource!
I am hoping to start a new hobby with my 11 year old daughter. She has recently shown a level of complex thinking that tells me she may be ready for a
collection like this. She is very analytical like I am when it
comes to things she is really interested in. I can see her really diving into this with me and being eager to research all the things there are to learn and collect about
ancient coins.
I decided to make
part of her
Christmas gifts this year an introduction to this hobby. I am SO excited (as you can surely tell lol) to give her these gifts and
hope she finds it exhilarating to clean the coins and discover what is underneath!
After doing some low-level research, I got her an ancient coin book to use as a reference - Ancient Coin Collecting 2nd Edition by Wayne Gayles. Is this a
good choice for a couple of novice collectors such as ourselves? If there is a better one, suggestions would be welcome.
Secondly, I bought three
roman coins that have already been cleaned to show the possibilities of what we may find. Around Nero's reign. I also got some ancient
chinese coins but our focus will likely be roman/greek I imagine.
Finally, although I have read on here that
ebay and uncleaned coins are not recommended for new collectors, I went and got us about 70 coins - 40 from near
serbia and about 30 from a different location/seller in Europe. I made sure they were not low
quality or cull coins so that we would stand a better chance of revealing visible things on the coins. They are dirt "crustys" and not
Spain or desert coins which seemed different and less exciting to clean. I also checked the
NFSL before
buying anything.
My second and main question is this -
Most of the coins I purchased look rather small. But I was going for quantity to start this off. Would it be better to focus more on larger coins because they were higher
denominations and are likely to be more intricate? Or are the smaller coins capable of being just as detailed as the larger ones?
I will be sure to read all the beginner topics on here before we get started. Since everything is already paid for I
hope I made the right decision and we will see what we find!
Sorry for
writing an essay! Just looking forward to seeing her reaction when I tell her what she's holding in her hand is 2000 years old! If she loves it like I think she will, I'll be posting many more (and much shorter!) messages in the future!
Thank you for any advice in advance!
Don and Hailey