Ancient Greek and Roman Coins

Does anyone here collect ancient Greek and Roman coins? I'm not actively collecting at the moment (I don't have the expendable cash for that right now) but I have an interesting small collection.

This would be a good place to discuss that topic.

It would be fun to hold centuries of history in your hands but a little rich for my blood. I do like collecting obsolete paper currencies like Iraqi Dinars, Italian Lira, German Marks, inexpensive and I prefer their designs. Of course, I have examples of some African paper currencies where the paper isn't even centered and they look like bad forgeries. Also have some Mexican coins the same way.

FredHayek wrote: It would be fun to hold centuries of history in your hands but a little rich for my blood. I do like collecting obsolete paper currencies like Iraqi Dinars, Italian Lira, German Marks, inexpensive and I prefer their designs. Of course, I have examples of some African paper currencies where the paper isn't even centered and they look like bad forgeries. Also have some Mexican coins the same way.

That's a misconception that a lot of people have. You can own a Roman or Greek bronze coin for 5 bucks, complete with decent detail left on the coin.

They find hoards of these coins by the 1000's in Europe and other places around the big lake.

Guess that makes sense. With no banks to trust, you buried your treasure.

FredHayek wrote: Guess that makes sense. With no banks to trust, you buried your treasure.

I see ancient coins as an history primer. For 5 bucks you purchase a coin (although you can also spend thousands on them) and you see the Emperor on the coin, so you look him up in Wiki or someplace. The next thing you know, you have a capsule understanding as to what was happening around his time.

You look at the back of the coin and see a ships prow, or the Emperor giving an offering to a Roman god or something like that. So now you find out what the back of the coin commemorates. Now you have a general understanding what was happening around his time.

And then you connect the dots. That Emperor to the one before and after. You learn about one battle which leads you to others. Now you have a better than armchair understanding of that era.

And it goes on and on. For every 5 dollar bronze coin you purchase, or a different Emperor or commemorating a different event, you start to build a knowledge base of a whole 100 or 200 year era.

And all for the cost of a 100 dollars or so. Cheapest education you can get and you still have those pieces of history to hold in your hand.

I have 500 years worth of Roman coins and they probably don't price out to a thousand dollars worth of "investment."

My collection is far from the same quality/quantity as I have had in the past, but financial times change. But I still have all that knowledge and I still have something to hold in my hand.

Ya can't beat it if you have any interest in history.

I have done that a few times with guns. I bought a Soviet revolver from WWII, built in the Tula arms factory and it had the date of manufacture on it, at that time, Germans were trying to take the town. Was this revolver created and shipped right to the front?

I also have a German commerical quality Luger that was imported from Finland to America where I bought it. During WWII, the Finns joined up with the Nazi's in revenge for the Red Army occupying parts of Finland. To help out their new allies, the Germans sent crates of Lugers. I own one of them. So the pistol might have been used against the Russians in the hands of Finns instead of Germans.
When the war turned against the Germans, the Finns sold them out and cut a seperate peace with Soviets.