We wish to thank all of our loyal customers for a great year!
Our new on line catalog will be ready in Feb 08!
It is more than coin collecting, it is a passion for history!
This web site is intended as a educational resource for those who have an interest in coins and ancient history. Imagine holding in your hand a coin that may have been a roman soldiers pay or, one of the 30 pieces of silver used to pay Judas for his betrayal. Collecting ancient coins is fun, educational, and not out of  reach like collecting older US coinage and proof sets! I am by no means an expert on the subject of ancient coins or Roman history. But a rather an ancient coin numismatist and lover of art and human culture. It is my hope that these pages can assist you in learning about this growing hobby and how to participate. Start by clicking on the collecting link in the menu on the left!
 

From the earliest times of the Roman Republic until the fifth to fourth centuries BC, the Roman economy functioned on a system of barter in which cattle were used as a means of exchange.  Around the fifth century BC or even earlier lumps of bronze called Aes Rude came to be used as money since they could be used to produce tools and weapons.  The lumps consisted mostly of copper with a small amount of tin.  These lumps of bronze eventually graduated to bars of cast bronze known as Aes Signatum and cast coins called Aes Grave which date from about 269 BC.  These pieces (at times weighing almost a pound!) were cast in a two-piece mold made of either steatite or baked clay inlaid with some form of carbon to produce a smooth surface.  These molds consisted of carvings of exotic animals or gods with the ship’s prow eventually becoming a common feature.  Vents were incorporated into the molds to prevent the bronze from blistering.

The Romans no doubt found these large pieces of bronze cumbersome and inefficient to use.  Thus, during the mid-third century BC, Roman moneyers were obligated to develop a new coinage that would accommodate for the complexity of the growing Roman economy.  Since the Greeks had been experienced in producing coinage since the seventh century BC, the Romans brought Greek workers from the mints of Southern Italy (also known as Magna Graecia or “Great Greece”) to develop a silver currency.  As a result, a number of coin types commonly found on Greek coins made their way onto the faces of Roman coins.