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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Al Kowsky, post: 3744172, member: 97383&quot;]Plumbata, Those are good questions <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. The books mentioned in the thread have had an obvious impact on the market, especially Prieur&#039;s book since his scope is much broader than McAlee&#039;s book that focuses mainly on Antioch, Syria. Prieur had a real gift for simplifying the identification of Syro-Phoenician coinage for collectors by using many diagrams of mintmarks &amp; excellent translations of the Greek inscriptions. Roman provincial coinage has always been an area that many ancient coin collectors were afraid to tread, mainly because of a lack of accessible literature. The internet has helped ease that problem. Another factor that has kept collectors away from provincial coinage is an unspoken bias (sometimes blatantly obvious), the presumption that imperial coinage is superior aesthetically to provincial coinage. No doubt there is a lot of ugly provincial coinage <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie85" alt=":smuggrin:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />, on the other hand, there were many artistic masterpieces made at provincial mints <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie59" alt=":joyful:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. Of course investor/ speculators are also driving up the prices of provincial coins, &amp; the 3rd party grading companies are making an impact too. As far as hoards go, they are being discovered daily &amp; will always impact the market. We all know that there is a code of secrecy among the major dealers &amp; auction houses that liquidate these hoards. They keep as tight-lipped as possible about hoard details not to upset the market drastically. This can be seen with the huge amount of Athenian Owls being sold on the market today. All the unrest &amp; warfare in the Mideast, especially in countries like Iraq, Syria &amp; Lebanon have hampered discoveries of coin hoards in those countries. If peace ever comes to the Mideast we&#039;ll see a lot more coin hoards pop up in the market...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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