Roman coins
 

Ciao Everyone,

My wife and I will be leaving for Italy on the 14th. Some of my family members asked if we could buy some old Roman coins, or Italian coins. The cities we will be visiting are Rome, Orvieto, Siena, Assisi, and Sorrento. Looking for any suggestions for places to purchase old coins.
Thank you, Louie and Vera.

In Italy, the shop that sells coins is called NEGOZIO DI NUMISMATICA. If I recall well there must be one in Galleria Esedra, in front of the pastry shop/bar selling Sicilian pastries and products called D'Avino (or something like that). I used to attend some university classes on Galleria Esedra, but 7 years have passed since then, but I remember this shop. There must be another one on Via Nazionale which is pretty close to Galleria Esedra. With Piazza della Repubblica at your back this shop should be on the right side of Via nazionale.

Hi BATUFFOLINA,
What kind of age are the coins sold in these places?
Are the Roman coins genuine ? or just copies.
If genuine I reckon thats really an interesting purchase.

However surely original dug up stuff from a couple of thousand years ago should be in a museum.
Surely they are fakes, and if so how would you recognise an artifact from a cheap tourist copy.
Also how much would these cost.
Whats the norm on this stuff, I would love to know.
Its not really a place I have been or planning to go just yet but Rescue has posed a really interesting question and I would love to know more.
Muck

mucky...

that's not necessarily true. literally tens of thousands of museum quality artifacts and objects d'art are either privately held or on the open market.

coins are no exception. any reputable numismatist will likely have access to a source for roman era coinage. authenticity would rely on the credentials of the vendor.

it is also worth noting that "old" does not always equate with "valuable". rome and its territorial governments minted a staggering ammount of coinage which now have a relative scarcity (and, thus, collectability and value).

i would suggest louie might start with the greg manning gallery (website) who have an impeccible reputation and ask them to guide you to their european affiliates.

>...surely original dug up stuff from a couple of thousand years ago should be in a museum.<

I have a Roman coin from about 200BC that I was given when I was at the Smithsonian. They had a cache of over 2000 of them.

Not rare, not valuable.

This type question reminds me of a statement overheard while we were in the Far East.

"Oh yes, there are many Chinese antiques," the person said, "they have factories working day and night turning them out."

Just be careful.

I don't know if coin shops sell roman coins, but sure enough they sell old banknotes and old liras.

Ciao again everyone,

Thanks for all the responces. I will post any new information on where to purchase old Italian coins from all the cities we will visit. My wife and I are very active so if there is a coin shop in any of the cities we visit we should find it. PS, hopefully we won't come back with old Italian coins that were made in a CHINESE coin factory ha,ha.... I guess at some point you just have to trust the seller.
Ciao, Louie and Vera.