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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 743951, member: 57463&quot;]<b>History you can hold in your hand</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If you read some Roman history first -- the books of Michael Grant, for instance -- you will have a better idea what you are looking at and why they are priced as they are. </p><p><br /></p><p>Like just for instance...&nbsp; I am not a big collector of much and Rome is not my thing, but, OK, I got two denarii from Hadrian and Trajan because they were among the Five Good Emperors during the Pax Romana, the highpoint of the empire, maximum extent, and as the name says, Peaceful.&nbsp; Times were good.&nbsp; But it is not just the emperor.&nbsp; The Reverse Type is important -- some are rare -- and again, for myself, I chose a Concordia with a Globe.&nbsp; (Ancient Coins Show: They Knew It Was Round.)&nbsp; The other is another astronomical theme, a crescent moon with a star (planet).&nbsp; But you can get Abundance, Liberty, Hilarity (honest), and more.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>My other is a bronze, a sesterius of Marcus Aurelius, the Philosopher Emperor and the reverse is Minerva, goddess of Wisdom and War, as Marcus Aurelius spent a lot of time suffering in the snows of Austria holding off the Germans.&nbsp; In the movie <i>The Fall of the Roman Empire</i> (1964), he was played by Sir Alec Guiness, who later played another philosopher general, Obi Wan Kinobi. (I also have a copy of his <i>Meditations</i>, Marcus&#039;s, not Alec&#039;s or Ben&#039;s...)&nbsp; The other philosopher emperor which I do not have is Julian the Apostate.&nbsp; Read about him.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shiny ones in high grade are easy enough.&nbsp; What counts is why you want the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>And the Republic is not the Empire ...&nbsp; (It&#039;s an old story...)&nbsp; Republican coins are often cheaper than equivalent imperial coins because most people with any interest in Rome are into the glory, not the hard work.&nbsp; Again, one more, for myself, a little quinarius, like a 3-cent silver, struck by Cato, Marcus Porcius Cato, the Younger.&nbsp; He resisted Julius Caesar&#039;s usurpation and took his own life at Utica -- whence Utica, New York; Utica, Michigan, etc. etc. -- and gave his name to other anti-imperialist republicans (<a href="http://www.cato.org" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cato.org" rel="nofollow">see here</a>).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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