Any other numismatists in here?

Put your dictionaries down! It means "coin collector".
I've been collecting coins since I was just a young whippersnapper, during the Nixon era.
Got the hobby from my dad, who got it from his dad...
I started with Lincoln pennies, moved into Indian heads, buffalo nickels, and it went crazy from there.
Lately, I've been into ancient roman coins (you'd be amazed at how cheap 1700 year old coins are!), U.S. paper money, fractionals, and I recently bought my first piece of Continental Currency! Imagine that, George Washington may have handled that bill himself! What a fascinating hobby.

when you realize that bright new shiny 1957 penny you added to your collection as a kid is now considered quite old.....coin collecting is a nice hobby and a good investment.

If you collected the silver 50-state quarters proof sets from 1999, your five sets are now worth at least $500 - nearly a 200% markup.

Reason? People weren't buying as many of them in the first couple of years, and a lot of the ones that were sold got broken up for jewelery and such. Lots of high population states in that group (NY, PA, VA, NJ). Thus, they're rarer than they otherwise would be.

I only bought one of the silver sets. The first issues always seem to be the highest prices.
Appreciations like that are rare, in fact, collecting coins isn't a great investment. Most of the gains are annually in the low single digits.
Most coin collectors get started by picking coins out of their pocket change. The state quarters have made collectors out of millions and millions of Americans. It's the biggest thing to hit the hobby in decades.
My experience with collecting things has been that there is always a bunch of hype over the newest issues, which inflates the prices and creates a whirwind of buying/selling activity. Meanwhile, others quietly spend their money on more solid investments.
The rule in coin collecting is that you should buy the highest quality coin you can find. Be picky. Be picky as hell. I'm a tough sell, and the dealers know it. There are only a few that get repeat business for my HARD EARNED dollars.

where can i get cheap roman coins? or any other cheap ancient civilization coins?

I have made many many successful mail order purchases over the years, but I still prefer going to shows. The best shows are the big state "conventions" such as the American Numismatic Association shows. They attract dealers from all over the region, and the country, and they have a much larger variety.
A couple of good mail order sources are Ken Pine's: Coast to Coast coins, Pegasi Numismatics, and Spartan Numismatics.
Do a google search on "ancient coins" "Rome" or Greece, or Persia, or Judea... there are several dealers.

www.coinworld.com is a good magazine about the hobby. They probably have show schedules in their classified ad section.

The good think about collecting ancient coins is that there aren't a whole lot of others that collect them! That keeps the prices down and the varieties abundant.
A lot of the ancient coin dealers also sell antiquities. i.e. ancient jewelry, religious artifacts, household goods, war implements etc. I haven't bought any of them yet, but it's only a matter of time.

thanks for the info, Lefty! :hi: I'll check them out! :hi:

I have been thinking that I would like to collect coins from around the time of Buddha and approximately 500 years later Jesus--as well as coins that reflect their cultural impact. Your info is enough to really get me started. Thanks

As an aside, I think it is sacrilegious for money to say: "In God We Trust," I am even sympathetic to the idea that images may be idolatrous. So, it is funny to me that I am interested in this aspect of coinage.

It was advertised about two years ago. I'll probably get another chance to buy one. I passed it up at $75 which is a little too steep for me.
It was a coin made of clay 'minted' I think by the Romans about 400 A.D. It was at the time that the "True Cross" was said to have been found. One of the Emperors (legend has it) burned a small chunk of the cross, and mixed it into the clay, and then made the clay into coins.
A fascinating coin, regardless of the truthfulness of the legend.

They have been in covers since I got them. They are from 1971 and 1972. I looked up values on the internet, and--depending on scratches--may be worth thirty bucks or so.

I would actually like to sell them. I also have some early 20th century European coins my father brought back from WW2.

Even had a couple of Napoleon III coins. Nothing really valuable though. Like I said, it's not the best hobby if you're looking to make money.

He even invented a special coin collecting album. I think the patent must have run out by now. He wasted a lot of money on the album, but only sold a few. My father and his brother thought about assembling them and selling them to Walmart or KMart, but I don't think that they pursued it very far. It is quite an invention. It is called flip-a-coin and you put the coins individual round hard plastic cases which snap into the book. The individual coin cases can be turned completely around so you can see both sides of the coin.

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