Very cheap ancient coins for learning about history

Sweet! Now I just need a time machine and I can have a grand old time in Rome circa 400BCE.

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Hm. Maybe. Some people just like having such a curiosity.

I’m not surprised by this at all. Sad.

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I’ve found that foreign and old (non-looted) coins are gifts which invariably make males of all ages V happy, coin collectors or not. Lots of women and girls like them, too, but I’ve never met a guy who yawned at a ‘weird’ coin.

Ones w/non-boring edges, like some of these,


are met with delight.

When we spent a lot of time in Jamaica, we often brought back many coins. We’d give friends a few as much-appreciated gifts, and as a bonus they also loved that they make a “clunk” sound, rather than the “ching” of Yankistani coinage. :smiley: I even sneaked up on a guitarist friend and slipped a handful of them into his pocket, with a big clunk. He about jumped out of his skin b/c it surprised him, and when I pointed out their odd (to us) sound, he enjoyed occasionally rattling them around in his pocket the rest of the day. He’d rattle them, listening, then grin at me.

Walking Liberty half dollars and ‘Mercury’ dimes (actually Liberty in a Phrygian cap) are always welcome:



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Oh yeah, quite possibly. I was going from memory, haven’t handled any Roman coins in a while.

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The Romans were well known for debasing their currency. The amount of precious metal in the coin doesn’t really represent anything after a certain point.

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That’s not all they were known for debasing. Heyo!

I would argue that debasement ended up being the classical equivalent of inflation rather than a path towards a fiat currency.

Do you want me to change what I said to “The amount of precious metals in Roman coins is inversely proportional to how much that particular emperor was paying off the army to not rise up against him”?

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