Jeff Garrett: Discover the World of Ancient Coins – Part Two

This article features questions and answers about collecting ancient coins from some of the most active numismatic professionals in the country. They have graciously taken the time to share their vast experience. Their different backgrounds will give readers a broad perspective on collecting ancient coins. One thing nearly all agree on: the EID MAR Denarius issued under Brutus is a favorite coin among experts.

The participants are: David Vagi (Director of Ancients for NGC, author and regular columnist), Aaron Berk (Owner, Vice President of Harlan J. Berk Ltd. and producer of Ancient Coin Podcast with Aaron Berk), Sam Spiegel (Director of International Numismatics for Heritage Auctions), Zachary Tate (Managing Numismatist specializing in ancient, medieval and world coins for APMEX) and Michael Gasvoda (Owner and Managing Director of Classical Numismatic Group).

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1. How should someone new to the world of ancient coins get started?

David Vagi: The field was quite different when I started back in the 1980s; today’s collectors have many more options for learning. As a complete beginner, I would start online. I would type all sorts of search terms into CoinArchives.com and see what popped up. Not only will you get some exciting results, but you’ll find that many of the coin descriptions are supplemented by historical narratives for context. There are also useful videos on YouTube.com which will help you get to the point of knowing what kind of library you want to build.

Aaron Berk: Always take your time! It is not a sprint but a marathon. Find reputable dealers who are members of specific organizations who will police them if something goes wrong. Organizations like the Professional Numismatists Guild or International Association of Professional Numismatists are a great start. Anyone can be a member of ANA, so really be careful. Make sure whomever you buy from gives a lifetime guarantee that what they are selling is authentic. Ask lots of questions! Become a member of a Facebook group with tons of members where those questions can be answered.

Sam Spiegel: Educating yourself is key. Fortunately, this is easier than ever with the great resources available, both in print and online. From a collecting standpoint, I think about "education" as having two key parts: learning about the material and history itself and learning about the market. David Sear’s series of books, or Oliver Hoover’s more recent Handbook of Greek Coinage series are great starting points to give a basic overview (or if you want a slightly more in-depth work, I found The Oxford Handbook of Greek & Roman Coinage to be a great resource). For learning more about the market and pricing, I find the best method is actually studying auction lots and results. This will give you hard data from which you can draw your own conclusions on relative rarity and prices. Sixbid, NumisBids, CoinArchives, ACSearch and Biddr are all great websites that my team at Heritage and I are on pretty much all day, every day, as we research and catalog.

Zachary Tate: When I first started collecting coins around the age of 5, my first introduction to Ancients was Whitman's Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins. This gave me some general basics about the series and taught me how to read inscriptions and research coin types. In 2024, we live in a digital world and through the benefits of social media, it is now very easy to find a general club or interest group on sites like Facebook and/or Instagram where you can better guide yourself and your interests. A good way to truly submerse yourself in the hobby would be to attend the ANA Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, which is offered every year. They offer a number of advanced weeklong courses to help advance a more dedicated collector.

Michael Gasvoda: I think the best way to get started is to work with a mentor who is trusted and knowledgeable, be it a dealer or collector friend. I also recommend starting small, so any mistakes are low in dollar value. I would also probably suggest starting with NGC-slabbed coins. While advanced collectors are not huge fans of slabs, they provide significant comfort to beginners.

2. Ancient coins were produced for almost 2,000 years. How do you decide what to collect?

David Vagi: This is a highly personal question with no sure answer beyond, "You’ll know it when you see it." Ancient coins are attractive for many reasons: artistry, historical importance, portraits of ancient rulers and countless themes, such as mythology, geography, architecture, language, etc. Each collector will decide what lures them. Many will be re-directed once they learn more and discover something that proves even more interesting than what originally had lured them in.

Aaron Berk: I always tell clients to decide where their tastes are. Try and collect the best-quality coins you can afford. Ancient Greek coins are typically for aesthetic, where Roman and Byzantine coins are more historical. I also think eclectic collecting is best, as then you have lots of different and interesting coins and learn vastly more about ancients than focusing on what area. Also, then when you sell your collection, you will have more types to interest buyers.

Sam Spiegel: In my role at Heritage, I have encountered collectors of all backgrounds, professions and financial abilities, and I have seen people collect more ways than I can count. I've seen people collect by ruler in a particular series (the 12 Caesars is particularly popular), by themes (like mythological animals), by historical importance (like the coinage of the Roman Civil Wars) or simply by major type (I’ve seen a lot of collectors try to put together sets of the major and most popular types of Ancient Greece). I've also seen really serious collectors go the “completionist” route and take a reference, like Sear’s Byzantine Coins and their Values, and literally try to get one of every entry! Essentially, there’s no wrong way to collect. Figure out what interests you and just keep pulling that string!

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Zachary Tate: Personally, I collect what I find historically significant or interesting. For a collector interested in starting a collection of ancient coins, there are some general points. People interested in Greek mythology may elect to buy a series of Greek coins like the Apollonia Pontica Drachms produced in Thrace. These feature a sneering Gorgen referencing the legendary creature Medusa. Collectors of Roman coinage may choose to pursue collections of Emperors, such as the 12 Caesars of the dynasty started by Augustus, heir of Julius Caesar. Whatever your starting point is, it should be focused on a historic, thematic or artistic theme. Most important, find something that speaks to you and that you enjoy collecting.

Michael Gasvoda: I would suggest collecting history through coins. Find an era or period you enjoy studying and collect that field. I collected the 12 Caesars for 30 years because the history was fascinating – and easy to research and understand. One fun aspect of collecting is sharing what you bought with collecting friends or family. They likely won’t be excited to hold a random ancient coin, but a random ancient coin you can tell a story about is always fun to share, and it’s no longer random.

3. What are your favorite series of ancient coins and why?

David Vagi: My favorite area is the late Roman Empire, roughly from the mid-3rd Century A.D. through the fall of Rome in 476. This area is often overlooked in favor of better-known times in history, but there is much to discover here. Furthermore, the "entry level" coins of this period are quite inexpensive, even when they’re highly attractive — something unmatched by most any other area of ancient numismatics.

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Aaron Berk: My favorite is the Greek Sicilian silver from the 5th century B.C. Best art of all ancient coins!

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Sam Spiegel: This is a tough one, but if I had to narrow it down, I’d say early Greek electrum, from the very beginnings of coinage. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the invention of coinage didn’t happen overnight. There was a very gradual progression of rudimentary hacksilver, which were just cut pieces of precious metal without issuing authority, to two-sided coins with clear designs on both obverse and reverse, marked by an issuing authority. There are so many strange, unusual and beautiful designs from that first century or two of coinage, often produced in electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver) that there are still new discoveries being made all the time. In fact, we routinely have previously unpublished examples show up in our auctions. So, in a way, we (and NGC) occasionally work on cutting-edge academic research in numismatics.

Zachary Tate: The coinage of the late Roman Empire and Dark Ages have always been the most exciting for me. Looking at the collapse of a powerful administrative empire like Rome and seeing its coinage change during the decline is very interesting. Also, reviewing the development of the coinage that Rome’s Germanic successors struck is very interesting as well. The issues of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Vandals offer very interesting reflections on the inheritance, and development, of modern coinage through the continued use of Roman devices and adaptations of these coins into their societies.

Michael Gasvoda: Over the years, I have collected several completely unrelated series, Greek, Roman and Byzantine. The coins I enjoyed the most were the "12 Caesars" for the above-mentioned points. Everyone has heard of these emperors. From a sheer beauty standpoint, though, you can't beat Greek coinage. Without a doubt, some of the most beautiful coins I have ever owned, or handled, were in the Greek series.

4. What are your thoughts on third-party grading for ancient coins?

David Vagi: Being an authenticator and grader for NGC Ancients, my answer is biased, but I do think third-party grading is a good thing, if done right. If done poorly, it’s a negative. When I started, this field was the Wild West, and I feel like I should have had my head examined for trusting anyone that their coins were authentic and correctly described. It’s a huge leap of faith! For so many new collectors, third-party grading has removed this barrier, which is a blessing for welcoming people into our field. Many advanced collectors also use our service because they value having a true third-party assessment of authenticity and condition. They sleep better knowing that a qualified person without a vested interest has examined their coin. If problems turn up in our analysis, it gives the collector a chance to resolve their concerns with the seller.

Aaron Berk: Tricky one! Slabbing is great for many different reasons, especially for beginners, but buying ancient coins in slabs can cost you a lot more than buying raw. I feel slab companies should be used for vetting ancient coins only and not bought based on their grades, as this is very subjective. You are taking a US coin-made system and trying to fit it into ancient coins. Doesn’t work too well, plus you will not learn as much as handling the coins. Holding ancients is fine and there is virtually nothing you can do to harm them. Unlike US coins, where a fingerprint could hurt the surface, you do not have that problem with ancients. They are covered with Earth sediment when they come out of the ground and then they are cleaned. So, if thousands of years of being buried didn’t destroy them, your hands won’t either.

With that in mind, grade is probably the last thing we ancient experts think about when buying an ancient. In US coins, it is the first thing, so the slab grade means everything. In ancients, we think of strike, centering, metal quality, artistic merit, historic value and then grade. All of us have a grading scale in our heads and since grading is subjective, why would I only listen to one person or company's opinion, especially since grade doesn’t matter too much. Customers are overspending for high grades or star designations when they do not have to. Only about 30% of the market slabs ancients and hardly anyone in Europe. So, with a majority out of holders, you cannot say you are seeing everything in slabs that you could be and overpaying what you are.

Auction houses who only sell slabbed ancients will mainly only list popular gold and silver types without issues so they can capitalize off the grade. This tells you all you need to know about the priorities of profits over just selling all ancient coins like a raw seller would do. Finally, NGC does not guarantee authenticity of ancient coins but the dealer you purchase them from should. I tell clients to buy raw and then slab. This was what the slabbing services were meant for.

Sam Spiegel: I am, and always have been, a major proponent of NGC for ancient coins. In fact, I pushed for Heritage to begin grading ancient coins in earnest shortly after I started over a decade ago. NGC Ancients had been around for several years at that point but was still somewhat on the periphery of the market. After some major auction houses like Heritage got involved, we saw a tremendous amount of crossover collectors from US and world coins beginning to collect ancient coins.

Now, we're even seeing people come over from sports cards, comic books and trading cards! They were used to third party-graded items in their respective fields and felt much more comfortable entering the ancient coin market with NGC. In order for any collectibles market to grow, it needs new collectors, and those collectors need to feel confident in what they are buying — that confidence is what NGC provides. I understand that some more traditional-minded collectors still prefer their coins to be raw, and to that I say: That's fine! As I said earlier, there’s no wrong way to collect, and I pass no judgement on people who prefer their coins outside of holders.

Zachary Tate: I feel that third-party grading through services like NGC has helped to reach a broader level of appeal to many entry level collectors. The added review of these ancient coins by experts who have decades of experience in the field has helped many collectors enter a space that was far too intimidating for a novice. As these collectors become more advanced and comfortable in their collecting, they can make better decisions as to whether they want to encapsulate their coins or keep their coins raw in their personal sets. I feel NGC has done a good job in broadening that gap and making ancient coin collecting more attractive to the everyman. The most important advice I can give to new collectors is that you buy from a trusted and known dealer with experience in selling ancient coins. You will avoid buying counterfeits and getting preyed upon by more unscrupulous individuals who will use that advantage against you.

Michael Gasvoda: I think slabs have provided an important avenue for beginners to move into ancient coins. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Most new collectors today start with slabbed coins. Many stay with them for the long term. I rarely collect slabs personally because of the space it requires to store them. But when I sold my Byzantine collection, I had the entire collection slabbed.

Stay tuned for the final Q&A session featuring our five numismatic experts as they answer more questions. Part Three of the Ancient Coins series will be published on February 1.

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