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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2789254, member: 19463&quot;]That pretty well sums up my feelings on the matter as well.&nbsp; I might add that weird extends to wanting an MS67 for twice the price of an MS66, wanting a coin because the &#039;relative nobody&#039; that issued it made some list of rulers, paying a hundred times as much for one flyspeck but not another --- in short any reason that is not <u>my</u> reason.&nbsp; I like the swan and would buy a coin like that.&nbsp; I love that hand on snake and hope each of us here finds one in the stock of a dealer who does not see it as anything special so he was selling it for half price.&nbsp; There may not be another in existence.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know.&nbsp; There may be a mint sack with a thousand.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Three of my five most silly coin purchases are technical oddities.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>5. Magnentius - Flip over restruck brockage (one obverse, two normal reverses, one incuse reverse).&nbsp; This probably would not be the choice of a collector who wanted just one Magnentius.&nbsp; Silly old me would buy another coin just like this one. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]647401[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>4. Constantius Gallus overstruck on Constatius II but aligned well enough that it almost looks like the Caesar has a diadem on the portrait.&nbsp; This was a $5 coin because of its low grade.&nbsp; I would love to have this coin in a nice smooth VF.&nbsp; The chances on such a good alignment is small, very small. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]647402[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>3. I did not buy this coin because I wanted a Tranquillina from Tomis.&nbsp; I liked the fact that the mint dug out the denomination mark on the reverse die (not on the coin but on the die).&nbsp; I would love to find this same reverse die before it was modified.&nbsp; Buying THAT coin would not be silly at all, IMHO.&nbsp; Most people would not notice or would call it a damaged coin.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]647405[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>2. My second silliest purchase was buying a lot of 34 junk denarii because I wanted this Julia Domna.&nbsp; I was aware of the coin because it was listed in all of the standard books from one that still resides in the French National Collection.&nbsp; &#039;My Favorite Coin&#039; is a Septimius Severus with this reverse legend but, on his, Victory is walking.&nbsp; I wanted the Domna with VICTOR IVST AVG seated.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]647431[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>1. My #1 silliest purchase was buying a lot of 32 oddball denarii mostly because I wanted this Julia Domna.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]647408[/ATTACH] </p><p>Yes, as a matter of fact, it is a die duplicate of #2 but has better surfaces and <u>much</u> worse centering losing the most important letters of the reverse legend.&nbsp; When it comes to silly, is it sillier to buy a duplicate that is not even a certain upgrade?&nbsp; In this case I got several coins I wanted to keep but several others have appeared in JA&#039;s sales and some were not sold the first time around. I paid nearly $1000 for 32 coins (including fees and postage) and may end up with more in this one than I thought.&nbsp; That is OK.&nbsp; Sometimes, when you can&#039;t have the only specimen, you have to go for 2 of 3.&nbsp; Will I buy the next one I see? Will I buy the whole bag some dealer has in his back room?&nbsp; Now that really would be silly!&nbsp; We all buy what we must.&nbsp; I consider this the Rodney Dangerfield of ancient coins.&nbsp; The catalogers who write the standard references consider this a mule with reverse of Septimius Severus or Pescennius Niger because their precious theories won&#039;t accept a woman on a coin with a military (victory) reverse or a man with Venus (the lot included one of those, too).&nbsp; The fact that neither of those gentlemen issued VICTOR IVST AVG with the seated victory means nothing.&nbsp; Maybe theirs were all lost to time and Julia&#039;s survived.&nbsp; Meanwhile, I consider it appropriate that they should spend time with someone who believes in them.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Is there a prize for being the silliest collector?&nbsp;&nbsp; Would I beat the person who paid that 3750 CHF price for the snake in hand?&nbsp; This is a hobby to me.&nbsp; It is supposed to be fun.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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