Buying a Roman coin

[Erast Fandorin]

Folks,

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but the OH wants an 'old Roman coin' as a present. It's the 'old' thing that appeals so this doesn't have to be a big lump of gold so long as it has a profile of a Roman emperor on one side - a silver denarius looks surprisingly affordable.

Any suggestions where to start looking? Is at all possible, I'd like to find one that wasn't made by an enterprising bloke 6 months ago.

cheers,

[sherman]

York. Take a shovel.

[hairy v]

If it says "BC" on the date, it's a fake!

[GAjon]

[MDMA .]

https://www.baldwin.co.uk/ancient-coins-for-sale/a...

[Wololo]

I hear a lot of good things about Hinge...

[RicksAlfas]

MDMA . said:

https://www.baldwin.co.uk/ancient-coins-for-sale/a...

Interesting link. Look at this for example:
https://www.baldwin.co.uk/product/severus-alexande...

A mind boggling 1,800 years old. Just £70. That seems a bargain to me.

[Erast Fandorin]

MDMA . said:

https://www.baldwin.co.uk/ancient-coins-for-sale/a...

Thanks, is this a recommendation or the result of a google search?

[anonymous-user]

RicksAlfas said:

Interesting link. Look at this for example:
https://www.baldwin.co.uk/product/severus-alexande...

A mind boggling 1,800 years old. Just £70. That seems a bargain to me.

I thought the same thing, that to me suggests there must be a lot more of these things around than I thought? How on earth has it survived 1800 years and yet is only worth £70?

[anonymous-user]

hairy v said:

If it says "BC" on the date, it's a fake!

[Kawasicki]

Joey Deacon said:

How on earth has it survived 1800 years

Fell down the back of the couch

[caziques]

There is no shortage of Roman coins, hence common ones aren't expensive.

Ebay is probably your best bet.

[DanL]

Joey Deacon said:

RicksAlfas said:

Interesting link. Look at this for example:
https://www.baldwin.co.uk/product/severus-alexande...

A mind boggling 1,800 years old. Just £70. That seems a bargain to me.

I thought the same thing, that to me suggests there must be a lot more of these things around than I thought? How on earth has it survived 1800 years and yet is only worth £70?

They’re the coins of a large empire, so safe to assume they made a few. They’re also largely worthless today, in the sense you can’t spend them… I suppose this means they’re worth scrap metal value plus whatever a collector might pay for one.

You can see from the site linked that prices vary somewhat, presumably relating to rarity, metal used and collectability. On the first page there’s a coin for £40 and another for £600.

[Erast Fandorin]

I've ordered a denarius from a dealer with an on-line site: Silbury coins. It has an image of the emperor Trajan and dates from about 100AD.

As commented above, its a bit of a mindfk that something like this can survive 2000 years of war, chaos, cataclysm, plague and famine, and end up intact.

I'll let you know what the OH thinks, but even after her birthday the coin will still be the oldest thing in the house.

[mcflurry]

RicksAlfas said:

A mind boggling 1,800 years old. Just £70. That seems a bargain to me.

Surely a penny (denari) from 200AD would be worth more than that just with inflation