types and varieties

Most certainly! Our friends in the slabbing business even recognize this when the mark some coins 'Fine Style'. It would be bad business practice to label the others 'Product of a real hack' but there are some dies that stink even in series that are usually good. There was once a dealer I knew that seemed to specialize in poor style but genuine coins. I always figured he bought them at a discount while other dealers just passed on the opportunity. Have you ever heard that you don't want a car that was assembled on Friday afternoon? That goes for coins, too.

 

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A couple of coins I shared in a recent post. Both are the same "type" going strictly based on the Crawford number and description for 85/1a but of very different style and as I pointed out in the post, the later one should probably be assigned a different date. I think they should definitely be considered the same "type", but I am not sure if describing them as different varieties quite fits what is observed here, so I have them catalogued as different "phases" with the top being "phase 1" and the bottom being "phase 3" based on my analysis of the types. Some collectors would be content to have one but I plan to keep both, and hope to add a couple more "H" quinarii as well.

 

Crawford's numbering system is probably best for RR coins. He assigned 385/3 to this set of coins. They differ by die mark. I do not normally try to collect all of the, but will make an exception for special cases. I bought the second of the top two because I did not have an up to date coin list. I bought the bottom one because of the plumb bob die symbol. I have a few Roman plumb bobs.
A normal style that matches the coin.

A different style plumb bob.


M. Volteius M.f. 75 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.94 g, 8h). Rome mint. Head of Bacchus (or Liber) right, wearing ivy wreath / Ceres, standing in chariot, holding lighted torches, driving biga of snakes right; plumb-bob to left. Crawford 385/3; Sydenham 776; Volteia 3

I do not normally sell duplicates. In this case the 3 die marks (plumb bob, thunder bolt and pileius) are different to keep all of them.