17, best I have done here by far. I do not know where you would find a Mint State GIII for under $50.
18 out of 20. I missed two early ones on when the Romans started their coinage and the didrachma versus the quadrigatus. I'll have to show this to the wife as if I had owned some of these early coins I would not have missed those. She needs to help rectify this deficiency.
If I remember some huge hoard of these coins had been recently unearthed in Britain, a payroll for troops that never got to them and they apparently had come right from the mint. I got a number of them for $35 a piece.
Got 19/20 - messed up on coins in the provinces - though it was Judea no imperial coins rather than Egypt - learn a little every day.
Even in 2002, I don't recall mint state examples being quite that cheap. In any case, I don't know what retail price in 2002 has to do with Roman coins. I'd object less if I'd guessed correctly.
19/20 Not bad at all. I made a mistake with didrachm/quadrigatus. And about Gordie, I scored, but it was just a good guess. So, I only can consider 18/20.
I believe a lot of the price of GIII is based on strike rather than wear. Thanks to NGC rewriting of standards, we see coins marked MS because they have no wear but previously would have been lower because the strike failed to transfer detail around the ear. There is also the matter of current tendencies to grade more for the obverse resulting in MS coins with worn die reverses that should sell for a discount from two sided sharp coins. For example, the coin below was VF in 2002 when I bought it for $25 but a lot of the missing detail is strike related to the point that the lower part of the figure of Pax transferred to the blank. It has wear but the big problem is strike. The one below was $55 in late 2001. Given the date, I suspect the price quote was reasonably close. Overall, perhaps what we need is a quiz written with less emphasis on certain periods and certainly no price question. Writing a fair quiz on a subject like we study is not an easy task. I tried in 2011 and failed miserably. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/quiz.html Part of my problem was I was trying to craft questions that were not easily answered with search engine skills. Search engines are better now. I do not propose this as a "fair and balanced" quiz but it would be interesting to see what people on CT do believe would be "fair and balanced". I suspect we each would have our own ideas on the matter. I did not post answers to the quiz back then and received only a very few attempts. When this was posted, I was not very active on CT but would be happy to receive CT Conversations on the matter today. I pity the school teachers among us who must walk the "fair and balanced" tightrope regularly.
If I recall correctly, those uncovered Gordian coins were both well struck and never circulated and well protected in what had been sealed urns.
I was a bit surprised to see that one could get an FDC Gordian III for $50. But then again it was 2002. Certainly the other options were way too expensive so I guessed right.
I think $150+ is what you would have to shell out for an FDC Gordian III Denarius still not bad for a 1800 year old coin.
I clearly showed my Imperial bias by getting the first three questions wrong and the next 17 correct.