New to ancient coins and looking for tips

Hello everyone, I am new to collecting ancient coins and looking for the best places to buy. I have spotted a couple of auction websites on here in different threads, but one of them wanted my social security number (which I found to be way too much info just to be able to buy coins).

I was curious what are some of your favorite places to buy new coins?

And if you have any tips that you think would help a new collector, I would appreciate that very much. My main area of interest is Imperial Rome, but anything Greco-Roman would be worth considering. I recently bought 10 low quality coins and I’m totally hooked. I would like to buy some nicer pieces for my collection.

Thanks again and if there is an existing thread for this that I missed, my apologies.

 

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Hi welcome to CoinTalk, I find if you enroll on biddr.com you should find a few budget auctions to get you started in this great hobby, any queries you can PM on this platform. Also there is Vcoins.com although slightly more expensive but you can rest assured that you are buying from qualified dealers.

 

I recommend the auction aggregators numisbids, biddr, sixbid, bidinside and deamonta. Most of the auction houses on those sites are very good, well-established businesses. Avoid coins from emporium hamburg at all costs, however, as they frequently sell fake coins. It's also best to avoid Lanz. (Those are the only notoriously bad dealers I know of on those platforms, but it's always good to do a quick search of the house on google or in the cointalk archives, if you're unfamiliar with it).

For getting your toes wet I might recommend savoca's "blue" auctions for lower-end material. They always have a great selection of small greek silver, which is a favorite of mine. Artemide is another personal favorite--I've gotten several decent deals on very rare coins there. If you're really looking to dive in CNG, NAC, Kunker, Harlan Berk, and Roma are all particularly well regarded, and tend to be pricey.

I think it's great to browse through lots and lots of auctions though. Get a sense of the kind of material different houses sell and at what kinds of prices. I think it's the best way to figure out what specifically your interested in and what fits your budget. One nice thing about numisbids is you can save lots you're interested in and go back to them later to see what they sold for, so you can build a personalized archive based on your interests.

You should also make use of the archive sites coinarchives.com, sixbid-coin-archive.com, and on https://cngcoins.com/Coins_sold.aspx to get a sense of market prices for comparable coins, and relative rarity.

Vcoins and Mashops are also good online marketplaces for trustworthy coin dealers. They are buy-it-now and tend to be priced at high-retail. Occasionally you can find a good deal if you know what you're looking for. I always cross-reference their prices with auction results (factoring in buyer's premiums which are generally not reported with the "sold" price) to make sure I'm not vastly overpaying for something.

Hope that helps.

 

Hello and welcome
A good way to learn is through identifying coins.
If you buy a large lot of unidentified coins from one of the auction sites mentioned above, you will get low cost per coin and good quality for the money (unless you get sucked into a bidding war, which usually is a bad idea), and you will get a good learning opportunity on top.

 

NicholasMaximus, Welcome to CoinTalk . I've been a CT member for about 2 years & find this website very rewarding. You can learn a great deal by simply reading the many threads posted on this website . Many CT members are experts & are eager to share their knowledge. Before you start throwing money at ancient coins narrow your focus & invest in some good reference books. You'll be much happier buying 1 high quality coin versus 10 low quality coins. Are you still an active service member ?

 

Welcome to CT.

 

Welcome @NicholasMaximus. Allow me to offer advice of a different nature. Since you have a small collection at the moment, begin cataloging your coins immediately. Keep every bit of information, i.e., seller, dates, cost, references, etc. When I began collecting, I never thought my collection would become as large as it has. I did not keep good records. When the realization finally hit, it took a great deal of effort to begin cataloging. And even then, some of the information was missing. Believe me, you'll be glad you did if you continue to collect.

 

Some great sites to learn about ancient coins and run by some of our members:

Doug Smith's page
Warren Esty's page
Bill Welch's page

 

There are many different ways to collect ancient coins. My interest is getting lots of uncleaned coins and finding what is beneath all that dirt. I do gather as much info as I can about the coin and ensure that the data is maintained. I need more uncleaned coins and don't know where to find better lots. The stuff on eBay can't always be trusted. Larger coins with more potential would be best if I can find any.

 

Welcome to CoinTalk!

There are very many sites on the web where you can buy ancient coins. Here is a site of links:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/dealers.html

Here is a site for beginners:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/

Here is a page of links to interesting CT threads, including several threads begun by collectors with the same questions you have:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/threads.html

 

For a beginner I 2nd Augustuscoins.com and Bargain Bin Ancients for sure.

https://www.bargainbinancients.com/

After that check vcoins for Ken Dorney, Victor Clark, Incitatus Coins, and Marc Breitsprecher. There are more but this is a start.

 

Welcome, @NicholasMaximus ! All the above are great sites that I have used. And, many others.

Also, eBay can be excellent, but be sure to know the sellers. So don’t jump in spending a lot of money until you educate yourself. Hang around CT Ancients, use the SEARCH function box in the upper right of the screen, and you can learn a LOT as to who are good Sellers, and who are dubious. Huge amount of info here IF you do your homework. Research will help you to know the coin.

 

vcoins and m-a shops are excellent places to buy fixed-price coins. Also check out Forum Ancient Coins. I buy some fixed price coins to augment my collection when I am looking for specific coins to purchase. I also participate in a number of auctions. @John Anthony offers coins for sale via bi-weekly auctions to members of cointalk. You might want to shoot him a PM and get added to the list. Also, Frank Robinson runs popular auctions every couple of months. His website is fsrcoin.com. If you email him he will add you to his email (and snail mail) list. Welcome to CT!

 

there is an old saying in numismatics "buy the book before the coin"

I would suggest some introductory reading on ancient numismatics like Wayne Sayles' Ancient Coin Collecting series. Once you figure out what interests you most (Late Roman bronze is the best by the way) you can get reading that focuses more narrowly.

 

Thank you very much everyone, this is great info to dig into. I am currently waiting on a book that I ordered from Amazon (Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins: An Official Whitman Guidebook).

I am really looking forward to exploring all of these sites!!

 

Ancients are fairly new to me so I'll let the more experienced ones answer your questions. I just want to welcome you to CT. It's a great place to learn.

 

...welcome NickMax....

 

Bing mentioned about cataloging your coins. That's very good advice. I found one easy way is to register with Tanatuluscoins.com It is free and easy to use. Ras Suarez is the owner and he posts here often. Good luck and have fun.

 

@Gavin Richardson started a good thread for beginners that might be worth a perusal (links to other good threads, websites, and CT etiquette)

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-coins-beginners’-faq-thread.324858/

welcome to Cointalk!

 

You got a lot of good advice so far. Let me add a word about self-discipline. Don't go gung-ho if you don't know where you are going. And don't go alone. As for how much you pay, I believe in paying more to get more. VCoins is my favorite numismatic group. (Other people recommend MACoins and they are reputable. I just never bought from one of them.) As for all the others, there's too many to sort out all at once. Focus.

Read. You cannot read enough. The Celator was published for over 20 years. You can find the back issues on the VCoins site here:
http://community.vcoins.com/category/the-celator/


Just sayin...