The most common ancient-coin types

What is the most common ancient-coin type? In the 1980s I used to think it was the Constantinian era "GLORIA EXERCITVS, two soldiers and two standards". After the wall came down, in the 1990s coins from the common mint of Siscia (formerly behind the Iron Curtain) became much more common, promoting some late Roman AE like those of Valentinian and Valens to perhaps the most common types, although "FEL TEMP REPARATIO, soldier-spearing-fallen-horseman" has a strong claim.

Anyway, here is an outstanding "GLORIA EXERCITVS":

Constantine (307-337). 18-17 mm. 3.20 grams. (A little larger than most.)
SMANB, RIC VII Antioch 86 "c2" (very common) with many similar varieties. Struck 335.
I got it for the lovely surfaces, chiseled portrait, and overall crispness.

Show us a very common coin type.

 

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Who doesn't have a Philip I Aequitas? I think at least half of us probably got into Roman silver with a Philip I Aequitas. They are so common that a XF can be had for $55 or $60, and VF for $35 or $40.

 

Not so common as FEL TEMP or GLORIA EXERCITVS, but a beautiful campgate from one of the most common emperors:

Billon AE 3, RIC VII Heraclea 77, 2.786g, 19.0mm, Heraclea mint, Constantine II as caesar, 325 - 326 A.D.; obverse CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; reverse PROVIDENTIAE CAESS (to the foresight of the two princes), campgate with two turrets, star above, SMHD in exergue.

 

Just looking through my catalog, the most common coins seem to be Constantius II coinage of all sorts. I'm sure there are some scarcities there, but in general, according to my catalog, it has to be Constantius II:

CONSTANTIUS II
AE4
OBVERSE: CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, laureate & rosette-diademed, draped & cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: GLORIA EXERCITVS, two soldiers holding spears & shields, one standard between them; chi-rho on banner, dot DSIS dot in ex.
Struck at Siscia 337-341 AD
1.50 g, 17 mm
RIC VIII 102

 

Multatuti beat me with his campgate but I'll add another.


And of course the ever popular Alexander III

 

If you are looking for a budget common Greek silver coin as your first Greek silver, these are as common and cheap as it gets.


Euboea Histaea


Illyria,Dyrrhachion drachm

 

Years ago I wrote a page on the subject for Ancient Coins for Education listing what I considered the 12 most common types that might be found in the coins they were distributing to schools.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/uncleaned.html

I have given the matter no recent thought. I'm sure I would change some of the order. I do note a couple coins I recently sold so some of you might recognize a friend. Below are the images I used for #1 and #2. The rest will require following the link above.

 

For Roman Republic, I seem to see MANY of these Denarii:


RR Calpurnius Piso Frugi 90 BCE Social AR Den CXXXII ROM-A monogram Apollo Horseman - Marsic S 235 Cr 340-1

 

Hopefully I am posting in the right spirit of things here but it seems everyone has this this coin:


Gaius Caligula, AD 37-41
Æ As, 29mm, 11.5g, 6h; Rome mint, AD 37-8
Obv.: C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT, bare head left.
Rev.: VESTA above, S C across field, Vesta, veiled and draped, seated left on ornamental throne, holding patera and long transverse scepter.

 

For Flavian collectors the Pax type from 75 AD is the most common denarius Vespasian struck.


Vespasian
AR Denarius, 3.40g
Rome Mint, 75 AD
RIC 772 (C3), BMC 161, RSC 366
Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.
Rev: PON MAX TR P COS VI; Pax, bare to the waist, seated l., holding branch extended in r. hand, l. hand on lap
Acquired from Old Roman Coins, March 2003.

If a seller has this type labelled as 'rare' or 'scarce' they are dead wrong.

 

Kai Yuan(618- 907 AD) .

 

If you count Chinese coins, these might be among the most common:

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/12/25/coins-found-in-a-han-dynasty-tomb/




The article says the hoard had "two million copper wuzhu coins that weigh in at around two tons."

 

I can imagine the chat of these two chinese guys: Hey man, just take one! "Bling" some to your home...

 

Valens
Mint: Siscia
367 to 375 AD
AE 3
Obvs: DN VALENS PF AVG
Revs: SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, Victory walking. k P ASISCR Q
18mm, 2.8g

 

I don't, but we can remedy that if only you'll send me yours free of charge?

 

In case anyone wants a close up of the type of coin that they found 2,000,000 of in that tomb, there you go.


Emperor Wu Di
Ae Wu Zhu
Western Han Dynasty

Yep, I think I have the record for the most common ancient coin in existence today. There were probably hundreds of thousands in existence before....and now we know the reality is somewhere north of 2,000,000 coins...perhaps closer to 3,000,000 really.

No Constantine follis today will beat that. I doubt all the surviving examples of Constantine coins combined even approach 200,000.

 

Yes, that is an extremely common type. I remember going a coin show long ago (before European dealers stopped bringing so many bulk coins to shows in the US) and seeing a box, the size of a cigar box, full of those AE3s and the GLORIA ROMANORVM AE3 type. That helped me become more aware of how common some common types can be.

 

There are certainly a lot of FH, but with hard to find rarities for sure.

 

That's true! This coin type (wu zhu) was struck for almost 700 years (since Western Han Dinasty circa 118 B.C. untill Tang Dinasty, about 618 AD), maybe with short interruptions. It's estimated something around 220 million coins/ year. Yes! 220.000.000 per year!!!

 

The photo of that Chinese find makes the point well that the coins were not traded individually but in large strings tied together. If Constantine wanted a large amount of money, he would send a few gold pieces rather than a ton of copper.