About

Welcome to AurumRomanum.com.

We strive to bring you best available authentic jewelry and collectibles from the great Roman Empire.

We are located in The Netherlands, in Roman times known as "Batavum" at a stone's throw away of the ancient Roman Castellum (fort) of Praetorium Agrippinae (nowadays known as Valkenburg ZH) and the Castellum of Lugdunum (nowadays known as Katwijk). Both forts were built around 47 AD under the reign of infamous Emperor Caligula.

Our gallery is virtually located right on top of the "Limes", the northern border of the Roman Empire, a border that ran all the way from the Black Sea, along the Danube and Rhine rivers through the whole of current Germany and The Netherlands. Along this border, watchtowers and forts were erected to guard it. The two most western forts are the two mentioned above. The "Limes" also ran through Great Britain and is there know as "Hadrian's Wall".

As our country is very small (a mere 16 million in population), it does not pay off to establish a Gallery of bricks and morter as local sales would be too low to justify the cost of such a gallery.

For this reason we have opted for internet sales only which resulted in the establishing of AurumRomanum.com.

Establishing an internet gallery has allowed us to share our passion for "all things Roman" with collectors and dealers all over the world, something that would be impossible if we would only operate locally.

We have been active in the field of collectible items for nearly 20 years now and being collectors at heart our selves, we look upon available items differently than most "traders" do.

When we sell a 1800 year old Roman glass flask to a collector or a pair of 2000 year old golden earrings to a husband who is going to present them as a gift to his wife, this is not just a "financial transaction" for us. The satisfaction for us lies in the fact that an ancient artifact has gone to a "loving home" and will be cherished and appreciated for what it is; an artifact that withstood the test of time and that deserves to be preserved.

Although we are located less than a mile from the above mentioned ancient Roman sites, the items we offer for sale in our gallery do NOT originate from there. The Lugdunum castellum is long lost to the sea due to a moving coast line (no remnants have ever been found!) and Praetorium Agrippinae is a protected archaeological site.

We acquire our items in various ways, sometimes directly from a dig site, sometimes from collectors but also from traders (least favored option!).

We ALWAYS make sure that the items that we offer in our gallery are ABSOLUTELY authentic, otherwise we will simply NOT offer them for sale or even buy them. But... even the most experienced collector / trader can sometimes be fooled and make a wrong acquisition and this has also happened to us of course. When this happens, we destroy the item to prevent it from coming back into circulation and possibly fool an unknowing collector and costing him (or her of course!) dearly. Yes, this DOES cost us money but we feel that it is ethically unjust to sell these items, even under the denomination of "replica".

We come across sellers that claim authenticity and will even issue a "certificate" but what is the value of such a certificate when it doesn't even mention what kind of object it concerns and doesn't depict the item itself? Could be that it was issued for an antique chair and now ended up with a "roman" ring, right?

Since we thoroughly research the items we offer for sale, all our items come with a life-long guarantee of authenticity and we put our name and reputation behind it. This is documented by a certificate of authenticity with photo and description of the object. That way, the certificate is tied to THAT specific object and can not be messed with.

We strive to describe each item as detailed as possible and document it here in our gallery with as many photos of the actual object as it takes to give you a good impression of what you are about to buy. We will accurately describe and show any flaws that an object may have.

We bid you to keep in mind that very, VERY few items from the Roman era have survived FULLY intact after 2 millenniums and that there is a HUGE collector's base of thousands and thousands of collectors and that "bargains" simply don't exist anymore. A wise man once said "If it looks to good to be true, it usually is!". Be warned!

We try to make all our items available at reasonable prices that reflect the historical value, rareness and market value. Since our overhead cost is relatively low as we don't maintain a fancy "palace-like" gallery on 5th Avenue, we can bring our items to collectors worldwide at very affordable prices.

Since we are very much in favor of transparency and have noted that many sellers will not disclose how much is added to your total bill for shipping, we have decided to make it as clear as possible for you so insured shipping is at OUR EXPENSE for ALL items that your purchase through us.

We ship to all countries in the world with the exception of Indonesia, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, Bulgaria, Roumania and Venezuela (due to the ridiculously high credit card fraud rate originating from those countries).

You can count on it that we will package your order securely so that it will withstand the perils unleashed upon it by today's Postal Services.

The average transit time to destinations outside of Europe is around 21 days largely caused by often very slow customs services at the point of entry. Should you desire the much faster courier delivery, please let us know and we will gladly provide you with a cost estimate for your approval but be prepared, courier services don't come cheap!

We accept all popular payment methods such as Master Card, Visa, American Express and Paypal. You can choose your preferred payment method at the checkout when completing your order.

Should there be ANY query about an object in our gallery, our way of operating or anything else, please feel free to contact us but please note that we will NOT do estimations, valuations, authentications or things like that by email or over the phone as that is simply impossible.

We wish you a pleasant shopping experience and trip down the ancient Roman times and hope to provide you with items that will become your pride & joy.

Your AurumRomanum.com Team.

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