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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 2980365, member: 44357&quot;]That&#039;s a bit combative. I value the minor differences as well: it is only <i>after </i>studying and understanding as much as I can about the minor differences in known examples that I end up choosing the one which I want to represent the type. It&#039;s just the opposite mentality that you take as I know that I can&#039;t possibly own dekadrachms by die variety so I either will end up with a small number of iconographic duplicates or none, and I&#039;m more of a &quot;type set&quot; collector than a &quot;date set&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>The PCGS Type Set registry for US coinage has 137 coins needed to cover 1792-1964. Constructing a comparable set in ancients very roughly approximates what I&#039;m doing. Being that there are thousands upon thousands of types to choose from even before getting into the minutiae, it means ultimately needing to pick one of either a Standing Liberty half dollar or a quarter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, the question becomes: do you try to pick a 1916 SLQ, or look at thousands of examples to find one which has the shield and hand particularly well struck, or one in an early die state, or maybe an overdate... the same collecting mentality applies to both approaches.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It is very true that there are some common coins that still happen to be expensive (presumably due to supply/demand still falling in favor of demand, although sometimes it is due to artificially inflated asking prices). But that also doesn&#039;t mean that there aren&#039;t high value coins which are also rare enough to only appear once a generation. Case in point: this Knossos has been off the market since the 1980s and I&#039;m not aware of any comparable examples in the interim. The drachm, on the other hand, comes up in decently nice condition at least once a year. I&#039;d say mine is one of the nicer ones but it isn&#039;t nearly as rare as the stater.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, I&#039;d argue that, regardless of price-point, it isn&#039;t difficult to combine a set of attributes to make any given type excessively rare to where it appears only once per generation. A friend of mine has an adage: &quot;there&#039;s nothing as common as a rare coin&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, that said, there are obviously a large number of excessively rare types, but we all pick our poison. I just hope no one is masochistic enough to try to assemble a set of the coinage of Probus by die variety.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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