[atwebb]

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.

[anfractuosity]

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?

[atwebb]

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.

[vondur]

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.

[mullen]

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.

[bytematic]

A grad student in ancient study told me it was unethical to own actual coins. Is that true or does it refer to undocumented ones?