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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;medoraman, post: 1848640, member: 26302&quot;]I know its exciting, being able to buy authentic ancient coins so cheap, but your best friend in collecting ancients is knowledge. Knowledge of our grading system, (in short no AU or MS coins, for almost all coins a gXF is the highest grade, and take a US grade and lower it by a full grade, so a US XF we call a VF), which coins come in high grade and which ones don&#039;t, etc. Weight is only one factor in determining a coin is good or not, the best method is to simply look at tens of thousands of authentic coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>As an example, that Gordian III comes in high grades a lot. I have bought what US collectors call AU or MS examples for $20-25, (but I am a cheapo and have been doing this a long time). They simply hoarded a great deal of new coins of this emperor. You can read history to find out why. For numismatic purposes, suffice to say this was not a bad deal, but you could have gotten a much better grade coin for just a little more. For other coins that is not true at all, a coin this grade is the best you can hope for short of $300. </p><p><br /></p><p>Also, I echo the copper comments. Especially for sestertii. A high grade sestertius is usually much more expensive than a similar grade denarius, and sometimes as pricey as gold. Since almost all ancients are worth above melt, the value of the metal does not factor into value, its only collectible value.</p><p><br /></p><p>Btw, if you really like pm, probably the best best in ancients would be byzantine or some kushan gold coins. They would be the closest to pm value. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> The purity and weight of silver coins are of interest to us from a numismatic perspective. We are keenly aware of debasement and how it played out over time, its just most of us do not judge collecting decisions on how much pm is in the coin, that&#039;s all.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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