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Phil Martinez
Phil Martinez is the owner of Phil's Coins & Stamps, which is located at 9344 West Central. He opened a store in Wichita in October 2000 after doing trade shows for over 13 years. He is immediate past president of the Kansas Numismatic Association (KNA) and is a current board member. Phil has served in some capacity for the KNA for the last 8 years. He also belongs to the American Numismatic Association as well as the Central States Numismatics Association, and Oklahoma Numismatic Association. He recently resigned as president of the Oxford Coin Club after serving 7 years due to the time demands of his growing business. Phil's Coins is the fastest growing coin shop in Wichita dealing in gold, silver and platinum bullion as well as collector coins and currency of all kinds. He has been featured on KWCH-TV as well as KAKE-TV. You may contact Phil at (316) 773-0905.
Antiques & Collectibles
2002-12-01 10:08:00
How were old coins made to last so long?
: I read an article recently on the availability of old Roman coins (between 100 and 300 AD). How valuable are these coins? Are there quite a few in existence? How were they made? We have coins that were made 50 years ago that are worn smooth. These are hundreds of years older and seem to look great.
ANSWER: Coins were invented about 600 BC (2600 years ago) and quickly caught on. The Greeks and Romans minted huge numbers of coins hundreds of years before the time of Christ and several million are still around in nice shape. Ancients were minted in silver, copper or gold with lower denominations of copper and silver more common ranging from the size of a dime to a half dollar but much thicker. Each coin was made by hand using a heavy hammer to strike a coin blank between 2 dyes, also engraved by hand, much like squeezing clay between your fingers. Often the variations in the pressure of the strike caused the blank to elongate or split at the edges. (Our modern coins are struck inside a round collar keeping them uniformly round) Small coins were valuable in those days as silver and gold were rare and valuable as coins were valued for the metal they contained. A small silver "denarius" could be worth a full days pay for a laborer (most worker during this time were laborers). Comparable in today's world about $40.00. Unlike modern coins, there were a huge number of designs. The roman coins usually had a head profile on the obverse with varying subjects on the reverse such as a goddess, ship, lions, temples, soldiers, etc.. The obverse usually had a legend with the name of the emperor and his title. Reverse legends usually related to the reverse design. Greek coins often have the head of a god or goddess on one side but frequently had animals such as lions, horses, birds, snakes, eagles, etc. on the reverse. Roman legends are Latin with many of the words similar to english. Learning common names, titles, and words can be done with a little homework. There are not that many Greek legends, but they are generally short, naming a city in Greek. There are lots of ancients around. In other countries around the world (England, France, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East) archeological artifacts are commonly dug up, sometimes with hoards of thousands of ancient coins together. The museums get first pick from the finds for which they pay market value but most types are duplicates which go on the market. You can find many interesting low grade ancient coins available for as little as $5.00. Common ones in attractive condition can be found for $10 to $20. Of course, just as with any type of collecting, the sky's the limit for nice condition rare or scarce varieties. The coins of some Roman emperors are in substantial oversupply and these type of coins are available every day on E-bay. Low grade Roman coins can be bought by the thousands but there are many other common middle and low grade coins affordably available. These types of coins offer an inexpensive way to start collecting. Greek coins are not as common as late Roman coins but attractive silver types can be found reasonably priced. Most collect Roman coins and start with the emperors. There are over 30 different emperors and Caesar's with excellent portraits out there for less than $50.00 each, some much less. From Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD) to the "fall" of Rome in the 5th century AD, there were about 70 emperors acknowledged, all with portrait coins and another 100 or more with sons, wives, and mothers. Most collectors like the history. Roman coins are government documents combining history with portraits. There are as many ways to collect as there are ancients. Before starting any type of collection, you'll need to do your homework to study up on the subject and decide where or what type of ancients you want to start with. Libraries will have beginner books on ancient coins with larger libraries and universities having much more available. The American Numismatic Society has a fine list of link to education web sites on ancient coins at www.amnumsoc.org/eresources /numsites.html The "Celator", (the Celator is the ancient term for a person who engraved the dyes with which coins were struck) is a monthly publication devoted exclusively to ancient numismatics. It has feature articles, lots of photos, question & answer segments and of course lots of ads and dealers. Twelve issues cost less than $30.00. Contact them at P.O. Box 839, Lancaster PA 17608-0839 phone (717) 291-9870. One last word or caution, there are a lot of fakes and reproductions made, especially in the Middle East and Bulgaria. Many coins sold to innocent tourists abroad are often fake. Another reason to do your homework
 
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