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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2432138, member: 19463&quot;]They covered the matter of price paid but no one covered the &#039;other&#039; matter.&nbsp; This coin shows an early issue of one of the two young sons of Emperor Theodosius I.&nbsp; Theodosius was the last emperor of the entire Roman Empire and left it divided to his sons with Honorius getting the West and Arcadius getting the East.&nbsp; Within a century of this coin, the West &#039;fell&#039; and the East became what we now call Byzantine.&nbsp; Some people consider Arcadius the first Byzantine emperor but others (myself anyway) think of him as Roman of the later period.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]505524[/ATTACH] </p><p>My coin is of a different mint (Constantinople) than yours (?). The reverse shows a wreath around VOTa V or &quot;I hereby swear to be a good ruler for a period of 5 years starting now&quot;.&nbsp; The fact that the small portrait is enclosed in unbroken legend suggests the coin was from that early period just as does the V number which would rise in later years.&nbsp; My coin cost $10 and was not a particular bargain.&nbsp; Your next purchase will be better in terms of financial value but it is a perfectly genuine and educational coin.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I just sold (after much bloodletting?) my last batch of late Roman castoffs through our own John Anthony&#039;s list here on CT.&nbsp; The group of five finally went for $20 ($4 each) and included a similar coin of Theodosius I (Arcadius&#039; father).&nbsp; Most of us accumulate over the years a few coins that are no longer what we still collect or even that we have replaced with nicer examples.&nbsp; You will do this also unless you are different from most of us.</p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fs33.postimg.org%2F4t0s3wksv%2Fcomposite_k.jpg&amp;hash=6f2e2b758113d7b3909302e01b371a6c" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The point is I learned a lot from these coins and a few hundred others I outgrew in the last 50 years.&nbsp; I do not regret buying them.&nbsp; I would have been happy if I could have sold them for a larger fraction of what I paid but that was not to be.&nbsp; I suspect that your coin will follow this example.&nbsp; You may want to keep it so you can show it off on CT when the thread &#039;My First Coin&#039; comes up again in 30 years.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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