Augustus Denarius

BTW: IMHO you are collecting correctly when you buy what speaks to you. My language skills do not include speech of $700 cents no matter what date but just because we speak different languages does not mean we can not communicate.

 

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Here is a really crappy photo (with white balance way off making it look like it is ex. Papa Smurf Collection) of my example:

 

I love telling people how much I have paid for some of my Lincolns. "$700 for a penny!?" My response: "I could probably sell it for $800-$900." And that's for a coin with a mintage of 488,000. Which is why I think ancients are a good thing to get into now. If there were as many ancient collectors as there are US collectors, I dont think I could afford ancients.

 

My first denarius was a worn Domitian equestrian type, I dont think it's quite been a year since I bought it. This Augustus was my first ancient since then. I also have three other bronzes, two being Constatine and the other Licinius, I think. Those arent too special.

 

How many of the 488,000 S-VDB's still exist? Many ancients were minted in larger quantities if you follow the arguments based on die usages. I have no idea how many of the most common ones still exist.

 

Well, see that particular coin is very unique situation. It isnt like your typical silver coin that where many were melted or lost or destroyed. Being that it was a new design, many were saved. If I remember correctly that entire mintage of 488,000 were made in one week's time in August of 1909. Then the VDB was removed so that made them fairly collectable from the start. So personally, I'd say it is fair that atleast 3/4 of that mintage still exists, if not more. But with US coins, scratches and cleaning detract from the coin and I dont think are factored into survival estimates.

But we are really comparing apples to oranges. What has a better chance of survival? The coin that is 108 years old or the coin that is 2000+ years old. I mean even those ancients with very high mintages could still be considered rare by US coin standards today.

Anymore I find supply has very little to do with the value of a coin. It's all about demand.

 

I got this one in 1981 from a firm named Olympus. I liked it for the flan size, which was large enough to have almost all the lettering. As you can see from other postings, most examples are crowded.

21-19 mm. RIC 350D, page 90.
Banti and Simonetti, volume V, pages 21-37, #353 is closest. B&S have 141 pieces illustrated. Now you can find examples on acsearch to see what they typically look like, and what constitutes a really good one. But, back in the day, B&S helped collectors see what was out there to be had. They used illustrations from major auctions prior to its publication (This volume came out in 1974) and a few from books. I just reviewed their photos and very few had all the reverse letters untouched by the rim and only one with both legends untouched by the rim. That one was published in Grant's Roman Imperial Money, Figure 32. I just pulled that book off my shelf and it looks worth rereading. There was another nearly complete example they cite from a Glendining auction of 1963.

Research tells us that if you want a coin of this historical type, expect some, or a lot of, crowding.

 

Even8, awesome new coin.

Doug