A nice article from Vagi with comparisons of Fine Style and not so fine. http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=4471
Speaking of Vagi, the postman brought me his Coinage and History of the Roman Empire books today . I've only thumbed through it so far but it looks like volume I (the history part) will provide good entertainment and a handy reference for writeups. Volume II, meh, I'm not as interested the attribution parade but looking at pictures of coins is always nice.
For what it is worth, I reviewed Vagi back when it came out. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html#vagi It turned out that I liked it better than most people. I think the thing that really killed it was his decision to list a few rare types for each emperor separately and then lump all the others as a unit with one set of prices according to grade. In fact, this probably is realistic since most people don't buy Roman coins for the reverses but just want a portrait set unless there is a special type that is both harder to find and more interesting. The books were large and full of good information but would have sold better with more photos. Regarding style: I really agree that more emphasis should be placed on the matter of fine style but I disagree with the way most people apply this. I once read a dealer's opinion that the only denarii of Septimius Severus worth collecting were from the last years at Rome because the others were just crude and ugly. I say that there are better and lesser dies from each mint and each period of time. It is quite appropriate to seek out well done dies within a group but a collection will be deficient if coins are only gathered from one mint because it was the best (whatever definition of best is used). That is a bit like the prevailing opinion a century or more ago that the finest work of Greek art was Apollo Belvedere which is now somewhere way below also-ran status in most opinions. At the same time, anything Archaic was considered crude. Style preferences change just as do collecting emphases. I believe David Vagi is trying to point out that there are VF 4/5 4/5 coins that are more desirable than another EF 5/5 5/5 of the same type. There was a time that I avoided one dealer because it seemed that he specialized in high grade coins of poor style. Eye appeal still means more to some of us than grade. I look forward to more people recognizing that style is an important consideration and am happy to see someone of the stature of David Vagi is promoting this view.
I was just reading that article, and found it to be extremely informative and interesting. I don't really collect ancients, but there are some that I like.
