For any ancient collector or even a small interest in ancients, a VERY rare late roman bronze was posted on one of my favorite dealer websites. I know its rare since Rasiel of the ERIC series confirmed the same coin I have in my collection being of extreme rareity, it was actually the only one he had seen. Well another one has surface, though not as nice as mine, it is cheaper then what I paid for mine. Below is the write up of what Rasiel wrote about mine. Since then he had finished it and mine was still the only one. Just thought I would share for anyone interested. Coin thats currently available: http://bargainbinancients.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3037
Really? My two: I have never looked into rarity (or cared much) but the Bargain Bin coin would seem reasonable and worth owning even if it is not even a slight rarity. The first above without the SR is from the early period accompanying the 2 soldiers 2 standards coins and will be found in RIC volume VII as #63. The SR is much lighter, accompanied the 2 soldiers 1 standard series and is in RIC Volume VIII as #8. Photos not made to scale fail to show the difference but, held together, the difference between the 3.1g and 1.6g coins is obvious. According to the worthless RIC rarity scales, the SR coin is C2 or as common as they get. The larger coin is listed as R1 or S depending on the officina.
You know I was really tempted. So close I even just had to hit one final button but I couldn't pull the trigger. Can't justify a purchase right now. Edit: I have bookmarked the dealer though for future browsing though!
Here is another "S R" example of the extremely common VRBS ROMA type. This one is from officina gamma. Coins may be "rare" or "very rare" in RIC, but so are very many other minor varieties. I agree with Doug that the RIC rarity scales from that period are "worthless." There are so many interesting major types, both common and rare, to be interested in that rarity in and of itself is of minor interest.
Valentinian's gamma example might be the rarest of the four by one tidbit of information. RIC lists where they found examples of the coins they quote. Major musuems like the British Museum provided the vast majority of the specimens but a few, including this, are quoted from private collections. I take that to mean that the British, French, Austrian and other huge national collections lacked the gamma coin. That suggests it might be less common but it does not make me want to pay extra to have one. A specialist in the UR coins might want one just to fill out the set or to prove that such a coin really does exist. We each must decide what drives us to collect a certain coin and whether we pay extra for one coin compared to another. Most collectors discriminate based on condition; a few based on style; fewer yet based on other minutia. If I happened across a gamma coin of this type at the same price as an alpha (the common one), I'd buy it but I'd much rather have a 'rare' coin made rare by the type (hopefully an interesting type) than by a letter in the mintmark.
