Ancient Coins that are (still) Affordable in 2024

Lets once more have a look at the numismatic market and look at some interesting types of ancient and historical coins you can acquire for reasonable sums. Numismatics is for everyone, and even collectors of modest means can assemble a nice collection!

Lets see some examples of affordable niches and time periods that are widely available and easier to collect. We´re going to check some examples, so you know what to look for!

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[ClassicalNumismatics]

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[christopherevans]

This is really the true coin collecting world. Of course there are ppl with amazing coins and multiple gold peices. Me I usually only can do 100 every 2 weeks. The fact that I can't just grab whatever I want makes my collection more enjoyable. I will be more excited than the ppl who have so many that even getting a gold Solidus only gives a mild excitement. Coin collecting is like our own little club, no matter the amount you have love your collection. Ty again for all your great videos and for being a mentor of sorts to some of us.

[stephenparker]

Always good and thoughtful advice. This is my favorite ancient numismatic channel.

[ivdeadelendaest]

Started watching the channel a fews months ago and started regularly checking vcoins around the same time. I've only bought 6 coins since then but I am really happy with everything I got (A sabaean kingdom imitation owl, Hadrian Denarius, Republic Quadrans, Heroic Bust Hadrian As, Antoninus Pius Drachm from Alexandria, and a Ptolemy II obol.) Overall I'm really glad I stayed patient and only bought when I was getting a decent price on a coin I really liked. All of the tips your channel provided really helped me delve into this complex market and I'm sure you've helped many other beginners get into ancient coins. Keep up the good work!

[philipwagner]

You have a wonderful coin channel, Always very well presented. This video is especially informative. Thank you !

[mattl]

Great video- I think this will really help some people. Given the incredible range of prices for ancient coins especially, seeing that decent ones can be had for low-ish cost to start with or to still have fun when your budget isn't huge is wonderful. Little Greek Obols, for example, I find really attractive- the fact that anyone was able to engrave such tiny figures of such wonderful detail sometimes is incredible. I only have one so far, but I will hopefully have many more in the future. And you reminded me about the Sassanians- I'd kind of forgotten their coinage in the wake of the incredible beauty of classical Greek coins, so thanks for showing those again so I can be sure I don't forget again ;)

[SouthSideFrankie]

I am in the wait and save up camp, if you can only buy 2 coins a year then just buy 2 coins! There are a lot of books to read and museums to visit as well. Go for quality not quantity. A great collection is not the collection with the most coins unless they are all superb! I love the coins of Constantine the Great and Maxentius. I do not collect ancients but I could not resist buying one of each in fabulous grade and they were not too expensive, I really like them. It is also worth making a few cutbacks, such as do you need that burger from the fast food chain for instance? The money all mounts up to buy free coins! I also agree the Roman Provincial coins are excellent and provide another collecting angle and are also a great way to acquire the coins of the Caesars. Great video and great coins shown! I also like Roman coins with Countermarks, these are most interesting and offer another angle to collecting too.

[hridgreximp]

Personally I had collected with a very limited budget when I was younger but I still have a few rare pieces. All I had to do was save up for a few months and be extremely patient and careful with what I bought. With enough time, most people could afford solidi or beautiful tetradrachms. When there’s a coin you want, there’s a way…

[ABCMelanie]

A small note on the Indian coinage: it would probably be more 'diplomatic' to say that Indian coinage originated in the 4th century BCE at the latest. Maybe earlier, but we don't have enough evidence to push it past the 4th-5th century BCE.

Also, the Nahapana drachms are now dated to circa the 3rd quarter of the 1st century CE, as it is no longer believed that Nahapana's inscriptions date to the Saka era, so his reign ended by 89 CE at the latest and more likely at or around the start of the Saka era in 78 CE. This also fits with his coins being overstruck by the Indo-Parthian Sases, whose coins are subsequently overstruck by the Kushan ruler Soter Megas/Vima Takto.

Hope this helps. Love your videos. Happy holidays!

[Belowbluewaterdiver]

Roman provincials are slept on so much!

2 months ago I picked up a bronze provincial CALIGULA with his face on it for under 100. Just goes to show you can get some crazy things that you’d never be able afford in official imperial issues

[Soundwrecker]

I recently picked up a silver Roman Denari from the Roman Republic 94BC. It's nice, w/ Roma wearing a winged helmet on the front and a 2 horse chariot pulling winged Victoria on the reverse. It's beautiful and has great detail. $100USD

[darbysdownhomedetecting]

Great episode! Very informative and interesting. Some great Coins.

[AsherHamilton-mz]

Hi classical numismatics love your videos

[Diogenes_]

I recently got my first ancients. I won three lots of about 50 coins each, 2 mixed imperial and one of Ae3&4 late roman bronzes that included some Aurelian and Julian coins, my two favorite emperors from that period.

I’ve had a lot of fun identifying them. There were some difficult/interesting ones like an Augustus from Corinth. I got a sestertius of Trajan and Hadrian I’ve decided to work on a sestertius set of the 5 good emperors, just ordered a Marcus Aurelius, so now just Nerva and Pius.

Your channel has been a big inspiration, I’ve been watching for about a year because of my interest in Roman history. Now I’m already hooked.

[chrissahar]

After viewing and listening to your wonderful video I would probably go for the Provincial coins. They resembles in philately the infrequent local posts that sprouted for a few years or decades - basically you paid a cheaper service have mail brought to the government post office. These local posts would have designs featuring the attractions and history of that area. The difference of course is scale - local posts produced far less stamps than the government post office so you have a higher chance to get a scarcity or rarity it seems than with some Provisional coinage. And the local post stamp issues do tend to be like postcards of the local area as the Provisional coinage would do in its designs. SO quite interesting affinities there.

[Numischannel]

4:30 these silver double dirhams of the Eretnids (Turkish "Muluk al-Tawaif") from Anatolia, with "Allah" both as a countermark and as a "pseudo-countermark", all very scarce, have become quite plentiful in the current market in these last 2 years as a huge hoard has been dispersed by a well known German auction house.

[wardrm]

Tbh to own any decent ancient coin is amazing because you own something that passed through many ancient hands hundreds of years ago.

[ghostofaforgottenweedle]

I have a couple of ottoman Akçe silver coins. Can't read what they say, but they look beautiful.

But my favorites are still the roman ones, because they tell you so very much about the culture of ancient times.

[donklaser]

I've been adding coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily to my collection.

[griffinblades]

My father got me a nice silver denarius of Hadrian for Christmas. RIC 724. From my untrained eye and your videos it seems legit. I was surprised by how small it was and by how much the head protrudes from the flat part of the coin.