Unique Coins in Your Collection

Ooops! Your right. I went too fast. No wheel. That should have been obvious!

 

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Well, unpublished and unique are two different things. In many instances there may be others out there, but if they are worn or otherwise plebeian they wont show up in major sales or publications. Here are a few of mine:



Caracalla, 198 – 217 AD
Æ29, Tarsus, Cilicia, 18.20 grams
Obverse: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Antoninus right seen from behind with shield.
Reverse: Artemis standing right with left knee on back of doe flailing on ground, left hand pulls head of doe back exposing neck, grasps dagger in right hand about to dispatch the animal.
References:
Obverse die as SNG Levante 1056
Same dies as example sold by Roma Numismatics Limited, Auction 7, lot #875.

Provenance:
Obtained from Steve Showers at San Francisco Bourse, about 1999, $120



Constantinopolis Comemmorative, 336 - 337 AD
Æ18, Heraclea Mint, 1.7 grams
Obverse: CONSTANTINOPOLI, Helmeted bust of Constantinopolis left, spear over shoulder.
Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS, Two soldiers standing either side of a single standard with Christogram, both hold spears. SMHA in exergue.

Reference:
similar to RIC157

Double beaded obverse. Some have suggested the die began life just before reform and was re-cut to new standard.



Domitian, of Nicaea. I dont own it any longer, but its now published in RPC. Still unique as far as I know.

 

I do not think I have any coins in my collection of which only 1 example is known, and certainly nothing to match some of the coins you guys have posted, for example Alegandrons's example.

The closest I get to 'almost unique' within the realm of ancients coins would be this sestertius of Vespasian.

As far as I have been able to trace, the only other example known with this reverse legend (Augvsti Victoria instead of the usual Victoria Augvsti) is in the BMC collection.





Example in the BMC collection:





Another one which seems to be quite rare is this denarius of Marcus Aurelius.
It bears a draped bust of the emperor, whereas the overwhelming number of examples of this type bear a bare head. Not significant, but interesting I think.

Apparently the Deka Revnia hoard also had an example of this type.

 

One other comment. As a dealer I've sold many unpublished and/or unique coins over the years. I just looked and I currently have 12 in that category on my site, but I dont want to blur the lines between my business and my hobby (though some will say that's impossible and I do agree), so I wont post them (its easy to see them if you want).

 

I believed this one to be a unique legend variation when I bought it. Generally these read "FRVGI" at the bottom whereas this reads FRVGF. I later found a single example in the ANS that is a double die match and has this same reverse variant but so far I have found no other examples and Crawford does not list this legend variation, nor does any of the literature available to me.

 

One can never know for sure if one has a unique coin, because there is always the possibility that one or more collectors own one, but it doesn't appear in major auctions. That's why "possibly unique and apparently unpublished" is the most one can say.

 

These were described as unique in the seller's descriptions:

This small bronze from Salapia has one of the dolphin swimming the wrong way. I do not know enough about this series to say how rare.

This silver (or silvered) astralaga (knuckle bone) is one of my favorite toys. It was sold as rare RRRRR to unique. I have seen one offered by another auction company since I bought it 5+ years ago.

 

I'm not sure if I have any coins that are unique but I do have a few that I have never seen other examples of or only a couple at most. I have only been seriously collecting ancient coins for a relatively short time so I don't have the experience and knowledge some others have to judge rarity. Has anybody ever tried to determine the approximate population of a type? Is that even possible? What is considered common or scarce or rare? I know even a common ancient coin has far fewer examples of a rare modern coin.

 

I could not agree with this more unless we wish to allow for a coin being published AND one of a kind. I do not know how many of the coin below exist but it is the only one I have seen. It is, however, published in the Savio plates of the Dattari collection. I only found out yesterday that this 'listed' coin that I bought years ago in a CNG sale was the Dattari specimen. Emmett only says it is a rarity 4 so I assume he has seen others. We have to be careful when counting to distinguish between multiple specimens and multiple sales of the same one.



When collections are broken up and sent to market it is quite possible that some coins will disappear for many years before they pop up again. Many collectors who started with me fifty years ago do not share their coins online so we have no idea what they have. If they leave them to grandchildren who also collect (that really is rare) some coins could be off-market for a century. We have catalogs like Reka Devnia but who has seen the coins supposedly in the museums in the last fifty years?

Everyone who writes a book will list all the coins from previous generations of catalogers making little effort to confirm, for example, everything in Cohen (1806-1880) survived two World Wars. I have no idea how many others of the Julia Domna above exists now but I now know this one has been in someone's collection for over a century and sold at least twice. That may make it often sold compared to some of its brethren. Is it "possibly unique and very fully published"?

How many of the coins in our early illustrated listings (Savio is pencil rubbings so I don't say photographed) no longer exist? Lost, destroyed in war, melted by burglars..... That allows us a possible new category "once rare but now non-existent".

 

I have a handful of coins that are 'unique', in the sense that there are no others which are published or I'm aware of. These three are perhaps my favourite of the bunch.


Titus Caesar
AR Denarius, 3.36g
Rome mint, 73 AD
RIC V528A, BMC - , RSC -
Obv: T CAES IMP VESP PON TR POT CENS; Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: NEP RED; Neptune stg. l., r. foot on globe, with acrostolium and sceptre
Ex Gemini X, 13 January 2013, Harry N. Sneh Collection, lot 637. Ex Gorny & Mosch 122, 10 March 2003, lot 2043 = 113, 18 October 2001, lot 5729.

An unpublished Neptune type with CENS in the obverse legend. The coin will be 528A (under Vespasian) in the RIC II Addenda.




Titus Caesar
AR Denarius, 3.48g
Rome mint, 73 AD
RIC V529A (R3), BMC - , RSC -
Obv: T CAES IMP VESP PON TR POT CENS; Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: SALVS AVG; Salus std., l., with patera
Ex Harry N. Sneh Collection. Ex Dr. Busso Peus Nachfolger, Auction 404, 2 November 2011, lot 2570.

This Titus as Caesar denarius with the Salus reverse type coupled with the obverse legend on the present coin is unlisted in all the major references, including the new RIC II. The coin comes from a series minted in 73 AD in which the Salus type was known for Vespasian but not for Titus until this present denarius surfaced. Ian Carradice has given this new type the number 529A (under Vespasian) in the RIC II Addenda. Also, this coin is an obverse die match for the RIC V531 plate coin.




Titus Caesar
AR Denarius, 2.69g
Ephesus mint, 71 AD
RIC V1440A, BMC V467 var., RSC 39 var., RPC 843 var.
Obv: IMPERATOR T CAESAR AVGVSTI E (sic); Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: CONCORDIA AVG; Ceres std. l., on ornate high-backed chair, with corn ears and poppy and cornucopiae; in exergue, EPHE
Ex Gemini X, 13 January 2013, Harry N Sneh Collection, lot 742. Acquired from Ponterio, c. 2003.

This denarius features an engraver's error in the obverse legend. Instead of ending in the normal 'F' the engraver mistakenly engraved an 'E'. It is also an obverse die match to the unique British Museum aureus RIC V1437. A wonderful example of aurei and denarii sharing dies! The coin has been assigned by Carradice as V1440A (obv 2B) in the upcoming RIC II addenda.

 

COOKIE!!! NUM-NUM!!! It will be rare to non-existent if near me!!!

 

This is a beautiful coin.