As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, few Americans realize that one of the nation's earliest leaders looked far beyond America's brief hist...

Ancient coin collecting is one of the world's oldest and most rewarding hobbies, yet for newcomers it can feel intimidating: unfamiliar terminology, hard-to-...

One of the most fascinating aspects of ancient coin collecting is that many coins weren't discovered one at a time, they were found together, sometimes tens ...

One of the most useful skills a Roman coin collector can develop is reading mintmarks and officina marks. Those tiny letters in the exergue may look insignif...

Ancient coin collecting has its own language. At first, terms like obverse, flan, fourrée, die axis, or provenance can seem confusing, but every experienced ...

One of the best investments you can make as an ancient coin collector isn't another coin, it's a good book. Books help you understand the history, identify p...

If you're new to ancient coins, you've probably heard the claims: they cost thousands, most are fake, you can't legally own them, you have to be an expert fi...

One of the greatest joys of collecting ancient coins is holding the very same object someone carried nearly 2,000 years ago. Unlike modern collectibles, thes...

"Hadrian. AD 117 to 138. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.22 g, 6h). Rome mint... RIC II.3 238. VF." To a new collector, an ancient coin description can look like anothe...

No two ancient coin dies were exactly alike. Every die was engraved by hand, so every detail, from a letter's shape to the curl of an emperor's hair, was uni...

To a beginner, a worn ancient coin can seem impossible to identify. Yet experienced numismatists attribute coins surprisingly quickly, not by luck, but by fo...

Not all counterfeit ancient coins were made the same way. Some were cast in molds, others struck with dies, and knowing the difference is one of the most use...

A second portrait. Letters that don't belong. Part of another design peeking through from beneath. Many collectors mistake these for damage, but they're some...

"Plate Coin." You've seen it in auction catalogs and numismatic books, and for many collectors the term is confusing. Is it a special type? More valuable? Th...

Counterfeiting money isn't a modern invention, it's as old as valuable coins themselves. The fourrée is one of the most fascinating examples: an ancient coun...

The first time you open an ancient coin auction catalog, it can feel overwhelming: abbreviations everywhere, references you've never seen, Latin legends, die...

RIC II Trajan 123. Sear 1058. RPC I 4567. HGC 6, 123. To a new collector, those strings of letters and numbers in auction listings look like a secret code, b...

Most people assume a genuine coin from the Roman Empire or Biblical Judaea must cost thousands. The surprising truth is that many cost less than a dinner for...

A Roman emperor's portrait, but the legends are in Greek, the reverse looks unfamiliar, and the mint isn't Rome. Many new collectors hit that exact moment of...

IMP. AVG. P P. TR P. COS. At first glance a Roman coin looks like a circle of random letters, and the lettering is one of the most intimidating parts of coll...

"Broad flan." "Minor flan crack." "Off-center on a small flan." If you've read auction descriptions, you've seen the word, but what is a flan? It's the blank...

"Horn silver" sounds alarming in an auction description, but it's one of the most misunderstood conditions on ancient silver coins. It's silver chloride that...

New collectors often assume every soft detail on an ancient coin comes from circulation. Often it doesn't. Sometimes the coin left the mint that way, because...

Ever seen an ancient coin with a small portrait or symbol stamped over its original design? That's a countermark, an official mark added after the coin was s...