What should one budget for a 12 Caesars set?

I wasn't really shooting for a set, but once I got Augustus, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian and Domitian decided I had enough to make the set a goal. Turns out the rest are quite a bit more challenging! I've since gotten a provincial Tiberius, been an under-bidder on a couple of Tituses and lurked a ton of auctions.

 

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Putting together a set in base metals is far more challenging (though cheaper). I was thinking of doing this recently but scanning through all the auctions I am having a hard time of it as so many coins are either tooled or smoothed these days. I may have to abandon the idea. There is also the regret of loss due to lack of attention. I recently saw the nicest Julius Caesar dupondius ever. I decided it was to be mine. My maximum bid would have been $3,000 (yea, it was that nice). Well, I simply forgot to bid. A few hours after the close I realized I needed to bid but was saddened to see it went for $750. Yikes! Just another reason to enter ones bid early and not late.

 

I assume that the coins are genuine. Museums sometimes display replicas but I believe this was the real deal. I recommend everyone take time to visit the Met if they have the time when visiting New York.

 

I took some time today to put together a new image of my 12 Caesars AR set

 

Lets see, I'm not intentionally putting a set together at this time. I have been looking for a Nero for sometime now. Other than that I have 2 of the 12, Vespasian & Domitian both are under $50 examples.

 

@Bing

A very nice shot!

 

Thanks

 

That's a great set! It's a very well-matched group, except that Domitian kind of sticks out like a sore thumb being such high grade. If it were my set, I would get another, more worn Domitian. I love your fat Nero though. Amazing coins, all.

 

I agree that is a very nice group picture of Bing's 12 C's set.
(why oh why can I not take pictures like that...?!)

 

No secret this is on Heritage now. With Germanicus it's like 2 for one. What do you guys think of this one?

 

I think it's a bad idea to publicly post coins that are currently up for auction, in case someone else here is planning on bidding. It brings extra attention to the coin, and possibly more bidding competition. Plus, if someone else here is bidding and wins, it can (falsely) appear that they "stole" the coin from you.

 

I like it. Someone needs to free it from its tomb, though.

 

I will free it for photos if I win. Obvious cleaning and smoothing around the text and head. Why didn't they do that on the fields?

 

Can I ask, "What constitutes a 12 Caesars set?"

Is it sufficient to have a coin ascribed to each of the Caesars mentioned, or is the criteria that all of the coins must display a bust of each of the Caesars?

 

To each its own I guess : some people want a portrait, some want the name of the dude...

As a non focused collector (on the roman empire at least) I realized one day that I already had 11 out of 12 of the set, so I decided I would complete it. It's composed of various denominations though, and there's an extra character as Mark Antony is here too :



Q

 

The broad definition of a 12 Caesars set seems to be "one coin struck during the reign of each of the 12 Caesars listed by Suetonius."

Narrower areas of focus in the 12 Caesars are typically (1) lifetime portrait obverses for each of the Caesars (see Bing's and Cucumbor's sets above), and (2) one metal/type (aurei, denarii, sestertii, asses) of each Caesar (as is Bing's AR set above). These are a little more difficult to assemble, and in some cases impossible since, e.g., no aurei with Julius Caesar's portrait were struck during his lifetime.

There has been a lot of discussion on this topic in past years on this site. Try starting here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-is-a-12-caesars-set.235118/

 

One should also decide if all rulers are Augustus or whether it is acceptable to have portraits of rulers as Caesar. In my set I made the deliberate choice of collecting a Titus as Caesar instead of as Augustus because I loved the reverse. Not only is the reverse rare, but it harkens back to a coin of Marc Antony. For these reasons I was willing to accept a Titus as Caesar into my set.

I do not have any provincials in my set but some collectors will have provincial issues of some rulers. One example is Otho. He did not mint any imperial bronze so there is a lot of competition for his denarii but his provincial issues do appear quite often. So do you want imperial issues or are provincial issues okay?


There are as many ways of doing this set as there are collectors. Find what works for you and do not let anybody tell you your approach is wrong.

 

@IdesOfMarch01 and
@Orfew

Thank-you for answering my query. As I have a (very) limited budget, and I have 11 of the 12 'bases' covered with coins attributed to those Caesars, it remains for me to get an "Otho", (at my price) and then as my 'fortunes' improve 'I can swap out' my non portrait coins for portrait coins, as they come along.
Sounds like a plan.

EDIT: Sorry, it is 'Galba' that I am 'missing'.

 

Some great sets and great advice in this thread.
It motivated me to rework and rephotograph my set of twelve. I've swapped out 7 from my previous 12 and photographed them all with a black background. Hope you enjoy them.

 

@Nemo
That is a great shot of a very nice collection. I really like that very rare Gaius (Caligula) and the Otho is very nice.