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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 2697386, member: 85693&quot;]A couple years ago I bought one of those Postal Commemoration Society ancient coin packages - &quot;Ancient Silver Coinage&quot; consisting of a Roman Empire denarius and an Illyria drachm of the common cow-calf type.&nbsp; The coins came packaged in a fancy folder with some potted history of Greece and Rome, certificate of authenticity (of course), as well as an original advertising flyer stating this sold for $149.00 (available in four easy payments to boot).&nbsp; I posted some photos of the fancy packaging as thumbnails so this post isn&#039;t a yard long.</p><p><br /></p><p>I did not pay retail for this - I got it on eBay for $22.50 - which seemed like a good price for the two coins.&nbsp; The Illyria drachm was pretty mediocre, although I like the wildly off-center reverse strike.&nbsp; The denarius, which I liked for its nice portrait, appeared to be one of the common Victory types of Septimius Severus.&nbsp; When I got it in hand and started looking to attribute it, I was surprised to find, from what I could find online, that it is noted as &quot;rare&quot; with a Reka Devina hoard reference (if my attribution is correct - I welcome corrections).&nbsp; The attribution below is from Wildwinds via George Clegg.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]606381[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]606382[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Septimius Severus (193-194 A.D.)&nbsp; L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP III laureate head right / VICT AVG TR P II COS II PP, Victory advancing rt., holding wreath and palm.&nbsp; RIC 38A; Reka Devnia hoard, p. 103 rated rare </b></p><p><br /></p><p>I realize &quot;rare&quot; ancient coin types do not translate into vast fortunes. But I thought it interesting, that the Postal Commemoration Society doesn&#039;t, apparently, go through their material looking for rare reverse types.&nbsp; My guess is they check to make sure there are no Caligulas in the batch before they start packaging them up.&nbsp; This makes good business sense I think, since &quot;rare&quot; types such as this one might not command much of a premium and the administrative cost of tracking down every Pietas and Annona and Victory would be prohibitive.</p><p><br /></p><p>Along the same lines, I recently picked up on eBay a supposed denarius of Trajan which originally sold for $39.99 - not sure who was selling these, but the eBay seller included what appears to be a magazine ad clipping.&nbsp; I paid $19.99 (it was a buy it now sale).&nbsp; I went for it because, after looking it over, I realized the legends were in Greek.&nbsp; Not a denarius for sure.&nbsp; I know nothing about Roman provincials, but it interested me, so I went for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]606385[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Cappadocia - CaesareaDrachm of Trajan (112-117 A.D.) AYTOKP KAIC NEP TPAIANOC CEB ΓEPM ΔAK, laureate &amp; cuirassed bust right / ΔHMAPXE ΞYΠATOC, clasped hands, legionary standard on prow. Syd 223; Metcalf 83a (?)</b></p><p><br /></p><p>I am not entirely sure about that attribution - there are varieties.&nbsp; From what I can tell this is the &quot;scarce&quot; bust type, but I am unsure about that.&nbsp; Condition is pretty lousy (not, as originally advertised, &quot;nice very fine&quot;), although it looks slightly better in hand (the &quot;clasped hands&quot; reverse is not quite as cruddy as the photo shows, but it is pretty cruddy).&nbsp; It&#039;s my first silver Roman Provincial.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I thought it interesting that a drachm got mixed in with a batch of denarii for one of those ancient coin magazine specials.&nbsp; I was wondering if anybody else out there have found a rare gem (or an oddity) amongst the fancy-packaged (and pricy) ancients?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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