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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2015530, member: 19463&quot;]I believe that there were so many sestertii struck during the period of Antoninus Pius through Commodus that the demand for new coins was low for a while.&nbsp; Also remember that inflation was making the buying power of the coin less so it might be that demand was falling off for that reason as well.&nbsp; When I was a kid, half dollars were commonly in circulation and paid many lunch bills with change in dimes and nickels.&nbsp; Today, the average lunch - nothing big or fancy - requires breaking a five at least.&nbsp; We now only use smaller coins to support our ridiculous habit of pricing things at $4.98 rather than $5.00 and paying a tax that could as simply be collected from the merchant as a percentage of total sales rather than separately from each.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Septimius did issue asses but many were special New Years donative coins or, I suspect, had other &#039;footnotes&#039; that explained the need at some particular point in time now lost to history.&nbsp; Workmanship was not great on denarii of the middle part of the reign and sestertii are much harder to make due to both size and metal alloy.&nbsp; I am not at all surprised you have trouble finding perfectly made pieces that never circulated at all so they have no wear.&nbsp;&nbsp; People do not hoard away piles of new bronzes as often as they might new silver or gold and smaller finds of coins often spent will look like the ones in my collection, not yours.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>As inflation continued the brass or copper in these old coins would quickly exceed the value of their fraction of an antoninianus.&nbsp; That would cause them to be melted and turned into cooking pots.&nbsp; Be amazed you have the two that you do and be prepared to pay heavily for the next.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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