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Message:: [QUOTE="Andrew McCabe, post: 3877345, member: 90666"]My rule of thumb is that the standard online resources such as acsearch, when added to common 1990s sales not yet online (such as early NAC or CNG) typically yield about 5 examples of any given die, and if one researched as thoroughly as one can older catalogues and musuem resources one might reach  10 examples per die. That is a very  rough indication of survival rate of coins in decent condition in published sources. For a rare type, with only a few known dies, getting die matched examples is actually the norm, such as the spearhead symbol Roman Republican sextantes above. For common types especially where only the best coin get illustrated, it's mroe difficult to find matches both becaise you have to wade through many more coins and because fewer examples are illustrated. Hence collectors of Late Roman Bronzes, where the vast majority of coins never make it onto Numisbids or ACsearch, find die matches rarely, and are surprised that for Roman Republican collectors matches are very normal because our RR coins are typically higher value therefore make it into the online resources. Its not that die matches on good Greek silver and Roman Republican are more common. Its just that they are easier to spot because the coins are rarer and a higher proportion of them can be seen online[/QUOTE]