Hi guys . A
bit about myself, ive been interested in collecting coins for the past 20 years or so . A few years back during harder times i sold my small
collection, i now find myself drawn back into this wonderful hobby. Im a
forum newbie and its taken great
courage to join as im no expert and anxious about having lack of knowledge .
I was
bit by the ancient bug as a young
man in my teens , while accompanying my uncle a keen metal detecting enthusiast and amateur historian . We would trek miles out from our village in kashmir to vast open fields , my job mostly was digging and the excitement of what we would find would
help me tolerate the summer heat .
His motto was where there was broken
pottery there would be coins . Believe it or not we found vast amounts of coins from the British raj , to mughal era and way back to coins from vima kadphises and
soter megas (vima takto.)
But what intrigued me the most was one summer day while metal detecting in some muddy fields we found a small square bronze coin, with what appeared to be greek
writing on one
side . Me in my naivety questioned what a greek coin would be doing in pakistani kashmir ...my uncle smiled and that evening
sat in our veranda told me the story of iskander ,
Alexander the great . How this young
man battled the thousands of miles conquering into the unknown and achieving a god like status ...the coin we found was a square
chalkous of menander one of the greek descendants of Alexanders legacy. ..
Ive been hooked ever since ...i collect coins of Alexander and
his companions ,but am mainly trying to gather an indo greek and
bactrian collection.
Much to my dismay i didn't realise the massive amounts such coins are achieving at
auctions and dealer sites. I only wish i
had kept some of the coins we found, most were sold in the local bazar for nothing and some we even swapped for a fridge! . Im uk based now and am slowly trying to put together a
collection, im no expert but think i have a
good grasp of
types and styles of indo greek and
bactrian coinage but would love to have access to the great knowledge on here.