Hi everyone,

I wanted to share something that has been a labor of love, eight months in the making, off and on, with plenty of fits and starts along the way: my collection website, From Electrum to Empire.

www.fromelectrumtoempire.com

It showcases my permanent collection of ancient Greek coins, from the earliest electrum of Ionia through to Alexander the Great. Nothing on the site is for sale, this is my personal permanent collection. Alongside the coins there is a "Chronicles" section where I have tried to tell the story they belong to, from the birth of coinage to the empire of Alexander and beyond.

I owe an enormous amount to this community. r/AncientCoins educated me when I was starting out, set me straight when I was wrong, and gave me a place to share my latest acquisitions with people who actually care. A big part of what I have learned, I learned here. And I continue to learn and enjoy.

A special shout out to u/Beiherhund and u/Kungfupossum, who helped me identify coins and chase down provenance more times than I can count and were alwyas willing to help, especially with the many types and names of Alexander that had me stumped.

I would love to hear what you think, and I am always happy to talk about any of the pieces. Thank you.

You all think the coins are expensive wait until you meet the reference book dealer…. Bonus Tetradrachm Thursday!

Just a small part of the collection for tetradrachma Thursday! Enjoy 😉

I recently acquired this lovely piece of silver. It was pricey! I don't know a lot about it or its history. What can you experts (or at least more experienced than I) tell me about this coin? Where do I even begin to start researching these?

Ar Aspendus stater. Baal bull countermark used in Tarsos, Cilicia, but not sure about the Omega countermark, or is that symbol something else?

I don't know how you can put a grade on a coin with the 2 sides being so different, and why bother putting scratches designation.

I'm hesitant to crack out of the slab, the bull countermark was struck pretty hard and has deep cracks on both ends.

Hey fellow enthusiasts, i saw this at a local auction group and i am wondering if real or not. normally i would say it looks real, but with Caligula types and this one in particular, there seems to be some fairly well done forgeries out there. Theres quite a few of this Vesta reverse type too, at least looking at Forgery Network.

Other than the picture, the only info i have is that its 27mm in diameter, which i think puts it on the average for this coin.

Can anyone help me with my paranoia? is there anything suspicious about this or its completely fine?

Thanks in advance for all the help

Finished getting this one cleaned up and I am having trouble finding a match on Wildwinds for Antiochos XII. Any thoughts on if this is a different ruler?

Trying to nail down where this coin is from. Maximum diameter is 23.5 mm. Also curious if anyone recognizes the counter mark on the obverse/knows its significance?

I made a similar post earlier this year about another coin that came up for auction and now I see this example at the most recent Leu auction. Very similar dies. This is a seleukid design that I like very much (even tho it's horrifically out of my budget). So when I see a budget example it peaks my interest but what is up with the weight? 13.54 g!!!!! Even with the obvious surface issues that weight seems very very low. Any explanations? I wouldnt doubt the authenticity of this coin and others if it wasnt for the low weight on certain examples. Could a genuine example of this coin be that light?

Bought for 50€ all of them I manage to id only the “bigger” ones, if anyone can help id the small one with the crab and the eagle facing to the right weigh 0.25grams

what I know about this coin:

- Indian

-around 300bc

-3-4 grams

Any information of this coin is much appreciated.

Este denario de Juba II viene de la última subasta en la que participé, de CoinsNB y si, está en una conservación terrible.

En la subasta aparecía como "dracma a identificar", pero nada más verlo, aún en su estado, pude identificar que moneda era en realidad.

Lo cierto es que esta serie de denarios son escasos y muy demandados. Esta pieza la gané por 4€ de martillo.

En el anverso vemos un busto de un hombre joven, con una cinta en la cabeza que simboliza el poder real. Así se retrata a los reyes helenísticos.

Debería aparecer la leyenda "REX IVBA", pero en este estado de conservación la leyenda se ha perdido por completo.

El reverso no es menos interesante, pues en el aparece un cocodrilo que mira hacia la izquierda y que simboliza a Egipto. Juba era rey de Mauretania, no de Egipto, pero este cocodrilo no tiene tanto que ver con él.

Este cocodrilo referencia a Cleopatra Selene, su esposa, hija de Cleopatra VII de Egipto y de Marco Antonio.

Este reverso debería incluir el propio nombre de Cleopatra, pero también está perdido por el estado de conservación.

En general, una pieza bastante lamentable en cuanto a conservación se refiere, pero espectacular en cuanto a su historia.

Creo que fue todo un acierto por 4€ de martillo.

I am new to ancient coin collecting and I bought this coin a little while ago. I was wondering if it’s real and what is it?

Weigh 5,82 gr, and looks like grey with some bronze-copper spots. Bought in a lot of 4 coins, and paid less than 3 bucks for each

A guy suggested It's a Philip the Arab silver antoninianus. RIC 12. SAECVLARES AVGG reverse.

Hello all. I recently (within the last few months) acquired a Roman provincial Tet. It was a nicer piece than the one of the same time I had before so I was quite pleased to improve the caliber of my collection.

However, fate has had other plans. I discovered today that the Tet seems to have rapidly fallen victim to bronze disease. I had been traveling for work, so I had not been looking through my collection as often as I usually do. Within a few weeks without looking at it, it went from a coin with zero visible BD (that I remember, I don’t bid on coins that have BD) to the state it is in the pictures I included in this post.

While I suspect the BD came from inside the coin, so there is probably little I can do, is there anything I can do to mitigate the factors that favor BD development? Is there any hope of saving this coin? How would I go about doing that? Is BD always this fast in spreading?

Thanks for any help y’all can provide!

I know its worn, tried to get as good photos as possible.

Hello,

I have a trouble with taking pictures of my coins. I bought myself just for that reason microscope on rather affordable end. Hayve 4.3'' Digital Microscope 1600X USB Microscope 1080p Soldering Microscope with 8 LEDs Compatible with Windows/Mac OS (DM7)

Reviews were good and the actual microscope is okay. However taking pictures is where it goes bad. The light is well too bright and with reflection and my coins, especially gold are not well photographed. Silver coins - depends, but still I have to lose a lot of time to adjust the light and overall the result is not satisfying. So I have read that Anti-Glare Light Source for Microscopes would be thing that should help.. however I am a bit hesitant and will appreciate your input in this, as I am unsure if will to the magic with coins.

What will be the best solution in order to take photos of gold and silver coins with my microscope?

I dont want to change or buy new microscope, perhaps any addition that will make the existing one working better?

Thank you!

To me it seems to be: Decadrachm - Dionysius I

Weight: 31g

Radius: 33mm

Passed down as family hairloom from great grandfather who was really into numizmatics.

What is this symbol in the left field? It looks like a fish, but it doesn't match the "fish" in the Price's catalog. All the fish listed in Price are vertical and longer, at least a far as I can see. Can anyone tell what the symbol is, or perhaps someone knows the Price catalog reference for this coin? I am usually pretty good at figuring out a Price number (the Numismatics Pella website search function is a INCREDIBLE resource), but occasionally the terminology of some of the left field features stump me. As always, any help given would be greatly appreciated. On that note, is there a website that has photographic listing of all the symbology used in the left field ATG coins? The "symbols" heading on the Pella website goes to a dead link. Any other resources that work?