Given all the different coins minted during the reigns of different emperors and their large area of circulation, I can't help but wonder if there were individuals who sought out coins of different emperors the way we do today. Were the Romans known to collect things like this?
Yes! There certainly were ancient coin collectors. One of the best known was Augustus who kept coins as curios for himself and gave them out as gifts (what better gift than money right?). Coin collecting is known as the hobby of kings because so many had royal coin cabinets which displayed coins. One way that we are able to identify coin collections from just hoards are the wide variety of coins found.