My maternal grandfather was one, in Italy. Had his golden age in the early '70s, when numismatica and stamp-collecting were worth real money. He even got a personal letter from the Pope, thanking him for help in moving some special-edition Vatican-issued coins. But it's been a slow decline ever since, and the shop was closed after he retired. I knew him as a sort of old "Del Boy" character, but in his heyday he flashed some real bling - houses, big cars, and so on - some of which he even managed not to waste before passing.
Somewhere at my parents', I probably still have a bunch of early-80s albums with some not-particularly-rare Roman coins in them. Despite the gift, it was a hobby I really didn't care for, to his displeasure. Nowadays, I understand it's a very, very small game.
To punch it up a bit, it's anyone with an interest in collecting/preserving coins or currency. Doesn't have to be an expert or rare. Coin/paper money/exonumia (tokens, fantasy issues) collectering = Numismatics
Also, fun fact for anyone reading, you can buy true, ancient Roman/Greek coins for a few bucks. Nice silver examples from certain well known emperors are often <$50. Just go on vcoins or somewhere reputable.
Yeah I always thought that the price of Roman coins, compared to more recent coins such as Tudor etc. is so cheap, I assume that's mainly due to there being so many of them?
I believe so, and I'm referring to bronze coins (so pennies/low value). It's likely that there are just a slew of them as well. Rome existed for 1000 years and was developed and widespread. They would have travelling mints go along with the armies/expeditions and mint coinage on site. It winds up spreading to everywhere, hence the hoards found in the UK.
It may have been that less were melted down as well, Roman currency was good for a long time.
Yes, they really made of bunch of coins in the later part of the Roman Empire. Plus, the Romans didn't quite understand some basic economic principles and then would release new coins of higher quality to replace older ones of dubious quality. Since they didn't take back older coins, they just flooded the market with new coins, thus adding to the inflation problems of the third century.
A lot of the bronze coins claiming to be from the Romain era are fakes. It is fairly simple and cheap to make a fake Romain bronze coin and after selling it to a tourist for $5, fairly profitable. What I find funny is that when you tell a tourist they bought a fake bronze coin, the vast majority of them don't even care.
Somewhere at my parents', I probably still have a bunch of early-80s albums with some not-particularly-rare Roman coins in them. Despite the gift, it was a hobby I really didn't care for, to his displeasure. Nowadays, I understand it's a very, very small game.