Show Your Rarest Roman (according to the ERIC II tabel)

Annia Faustina, #194:


Annia Faustina, 3rd wife of Elagabalus, Augusta, 221 CE.
Isinda, Pisidia; AE 25.0 mm, 8.55 gm
Obv: ANNIAN FAVCTEINAN, Dr. bust of Faustina r.
Rev: Confronted heads of Serapis and Isis, in field, E-Delta (yr. 4 ).
Refs: Ex Lindgren I A1322A, ex von Aulock, Pisidia I 833 (Plate coin for both references).

Here is a xerox of the page from Lindgren I:

 

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Nice!

 

Here is a 125 high straight. I have serious issues with many of the rankings on either list.

 

Great topic, Aethelred!
I'm afraid that I'm a bit lost on the numbering system. I posted this because I feel that it is the rarest Roman coin in my collection. I've been wanting to show it for a while now—the design fascinates me.

 

That is a neat coin Ray, I need a couple examples of Republican bronze!

 

I am of the opinion that it is not possible for a list of this kind to be much more than an entertaining thing to look at, maybe at best a rough guide. It certainly isn't the last word.

I should say that I do not own ERIC II, with some of the references that I have and use I do not think that I would use it, so my only exposure to these lists is online.

I hope you will take a moment to expound on your thoughts on the list.

 

Never quite understood ERIC II (and I for that matter). Hostilian as emperor; Vaillant S.343, not in RIC.

 

I have big Sestertii only:

... on the old list: Nero Claudius Drusus, # 150:




Runner-up: Didius Julianus, #145:




... on the new list: Gordian I, # 142:




Runner-up: Agrippina I, # 131:

 

my weak return....

Anastasius (491-518 AD)
AE Small Module 40 nummis (Follis)
struck 498-507 AD
23.8 mm x 12.43 grams
Obverse: Diademed bust of Anastasius- DN ANASTASIVS AV
Reverse: Large M flanked by Stars, Delta Officina - NIC, cross above
ref# SB32

 

I hope you weren't talking to me. My opinions are a matter of public record. I do not own a bound copy of the book but still have the stack of untrimmed pages from which I did the review. I enjoy doing book reviews but can not bring myself to sugar coat what I see as the truth. I wonder if I will ever see a copy of ERIC III. At the current rate, I suspect I will need help lifting it. Like all books, it is a great deal of work for an author for an audience that may be less than fully appreciative.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ericii.html

 

Your website is vast and I had not seen that particular page. I appreciate the link and promise to read every word of it tonight.

 

Having such a list in my opinion is not much better than a guess. Without doing some statistical analysis and research of what has been sold and what exist in collections, the list does not have much credence. Some assumptions can be made such as Avitus and Zenobia and rarer than say Constantine I. You would also only have to include official Imperial issues. A better although still flawed approach might be to group each into a category such as

Of course would need many more tiers.

 

Believe it or not these Spanish small change(I am of the opinion that they were officially sanctioned or at least tolerated) are fairly common. Spain and even certain parts of Italy had a great need for small change bronzes and minted these in rather large quantities, but they're not seen as often at auctions and whatnot because collectors of RR bronzes tend to prefer the "official" issues, but the prevalence of these things on eBay Spain and from Spanish sellers known for "fresh" finds seems to confirm they are quite common.

 

I just reread Doug's review of ERIC II. As a book lover and user of reference books multiple times every day, I want to know about a book the sorts of things Doug discusses. Personally, I am more interested in the big picture than individual coin details. I'll bet most owners of RIC use it to assign coin numbers more than anything else, but when I write a website (e.g. my site on late Roman AE
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/ )
the text discussion is extremely helpful. There are books that would help you understand, say, coinage of the Julio-Claudians. If you want ID numbers, ERIC II has your coin. If you want to understand coins and issues of any given emperor, it helps only as much as a complete list could. It is about coins, not coinage, if you make the distinction.

 

Thanks, Red! This is my first non official ancient coin. I purchased it from a highly trusted advisor at a very reasonable price. I've been keeping my eye out for more of them.

 

#90 Plautilla, LOL

Shows that my collecting focus has so far been to collect what's more readily available and affordable first.

I have not been at this long enough to go after serious rarity yet.

 

#120 on first list and #143 on the second.


Johannes. 423-425 AD. AE 12mm
Rome mint. Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / Victory advancing left, holding trophy over shoulder and dragging captive; christogram in left field.

 

I really like your coin Sallent. I love the crispness of it. I can make out the lettering clearly. As coin collecting proves over and over rarity is a lot of fun for all of us but it is far from everything.

 

At some point along the list (whichever you use), you will pass from important people whose existance defined Rome, the empire to people who were at best footnotes in history. There are a few exceptions for one reason or another but most of the second half of names on that list are people many non collecting teachers of ancient history might have trouble identifying.

David's tiers might be a good idea but even if we had 200 tiers we would still run across two facts. In a system of 10 tiers of 20 names each, person 21 will be closer in rarity to person 20 than to person 40 who ill be ranked the same. Super rarities are very hard to count. Domitian II went from the status of one probable fake known to two certainly original coins. A shovel in some UK field could make that number double or be multiplied by a thousand. I know several collectors who have coins they have harbored for over 50 years. Counts based on sales will never account for coins in museum basements and old guys' safe deposit boxes. I would be interested in seeing a proposed 10 tier arrangement (not necessarily having an equal number in each tier) that took into account what one sees more than what is thought to exist. Has anyone attempted such a list?

 

Mentor, I always love your words ...

I'd never heard of this lady until I saw the coin ... it yelled at me, so I listened



I can't recall if you liked this coin, or if you gave me @#*t for buying it, but thanks for patiently herding me along the path (you rock)

=> yah, obviously the super-rare babies are cool because "we" know that they're rare, but the price becomes exponentially absurd as you reach the top of the rarity list, eh?

Sadly/logically, I doubt that I'll snag any more coins rarer than good ol' Magnia Urbica (she's a doll)