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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3296489, member: 98035&quot;]Like many things, ancients seem to follow the &quot;80/20&quot; rule; you can get 80% of the Roman emperors for 20% of the cost of a full set.&nbsp; Especially if you are willing to break away from doing a solid run of a single denomination for each (and add provincials to the mix) you could make a very respectable collection on a budget of $100 per emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s easier if you break it down into groupings and focus on knocking them out one by one:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;12 Caesars&quot;</p><p>Julio-Claudians - Easy to complete if you do provincials, but tough to stick to Imperial, especially in high grades.</p><p>69 AD civil war - Expect $200+ for Galba and Vitellius, $300+ for Otho</p><p>Flavians - Easy to complete, except for the women</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Nerva Antonines&quot;</p><p>Nerva - Available, but pricy at $100+</p><p>Trajan - Common</p><p>Hadrian - Common</p><p>Aelius Caesar - Scarce and tougher to get, usually $150+</p><p>Antoninus Pius - Common</p><p>Marcus Aurelius - Common</p><p>Lucius Verus - Common, but scarce in high grade</p><p>Commodus - Comon</p><p><br /></p><p>193 Civil War </p><p>Pertinax - Expect $200+ even for low grades</p><p>Didius Julianus - $300+ for low grades</p><p>Pescennius Niger - $300+ for low grades</p><p>Clodius Albinus - $100+ for coins as Caesar, more for coins as Augustus</p><p><br /></p><p>Severan dynasty - Mostly common and very cheap ($50 will buy an AU denarius). Macrinus is more pricy at about $150+</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Crisis&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Maximinus Thrax - Very cheap even in top grades; a common-type denarius in mint state can be bought for $100 or less!</p><p><br /></p><p>238 Civil War </p><p>Gordian I - $500+</p><p>Gordian II - $500+</p><p>Pupienus - $300+</p><p>Balbinus - $300+</p><p><br /></p><p>Early crisis - very common and cheap, except for Hostilian ($100+) and Aemilian ($150+). </p><p><br /></p><p>Middle Crisis (Valerian + Gallienus dynasty) - Easy to get, but exponentially pricier in higher grades.</p><p><br /></p><p>Late Crisis (Claudius II - Carinus) - Generally affordable, but Florian will set you back a bit (although only about $100 for a high grade)</p><p><br /></p><p>Tetrarchy - Easy to get at about $50-100 for a nice AU follis</p><p><br /></p><p>Constantinian dynasty - Very common and affordable, even in top grades.</p><p><br /></p><p>Valentinian dynasty - Very common and affordable in middle grades, but higher grades are scarce to rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>Theodosian Dynasty - Very common, but bronze becomes degenerate and small. Gold is reasonably affordable.</p><p><br /></p><p>Late Western empire - After Valentinian III, all emperors are almost prohibitively rare. Many only issued gold, and fetch thousands of dollars even for low grades. Romulus Augustulus alone will usually fetch tens of thousands at auction. I&#039;ve heard it claimed that all of the Western emperors who ruled in the two decades from the death of Valentinian III to the fall of Romulus Augustulus issued fewer coins than Otho did in his three month reign.</p><p><br /></p><p>Late Eastern Empire - Affordable if you stick to the dumpy monogram bronzes; you can also get gold fairly cheap, about $200 for a tremissis, $500 for a solidus. After Anastasius, the Byzantine Empire begins from a numismatic standpoint.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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