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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2826594, member: 19463&quot;]Relatively few of us collect ancients &#039;by date&#039;.&nbsp; Your coin is only ordinary if you ignore the dates on it making it what a US collector might call a &#039;key&#039;.&nbsp; We have collectors new to ancients but experienced in modern who come over mystified why a specialist would want a coin so worn but still expect a slightly worn &#039;key&#039; date Lincoln to sell for a premium over its mint state brother one year different. </p><p><br /></p><p>My example is a denarius of Septimius Severus from Emesa mint with legionary reverse.&nbsp; The coin is ordinary because of the small oval flan that loses quite a few letters of the legend. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]665171[/ATTACH] </p><p>In comparison, the coin below is nice and round with full legends.&nbsp; It is made ordinary by just a touch of wear on the high spots.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]665172[/ATTACH] </p><p>Obviously some would shun either coin for a higher grade coin of Septimius.&nbsp; Some might want a legionary type but see no difference in the two coins.&nbsp; To a specialist with interests matching mine, the first coin is equivalent to a 1909S VDB while the second is a plain 1909S.&nbsp; The added interest to only a few of us is the additional date device IICOS at the reverse right.&nbsp; At least my &#039;key&#039; letters are big enough to see without glasses.</p><p><br /></p><p>I applaud your &#039;key&#039; date Domitian even if my first thought may have been &quot;what, another Minerva?&quot;&nbsp; I do not speak the language of Domitian denarii but I appreciate that it exists and that you care.&nbsp; Congratulations of your set.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>My closest is a bit more worn TRP X IMP XXI CS XV with different pose.&nbsp; Unlike you, I have absolutely no idea why I bought the coin.&nbsp; There may not have been a reason.&nbsp; It came from an unillustrated Frank Robinson sale in 1998 which is toward the end of the time I bought coins from unillustrated lists.&nbsp; Those were times for the young and foolish (or, in my case, just foolish). </p><p>[ATTACH=full]665174[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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