Denarius of Vitellius pickup

But Donna you don’t realize my post was referring to the experience most people would have if they went online and searched “coin dealers near me”.

Yes there are dealers who specialize in ancients but for the average collector if they drove around visiting local coin shops they’d have a lot of trouble finding one that specializes in ancient coins.

Online is something totally different.

I know that in my town there isn’t a single coin dealer who specializes in ancient coins. Even when I live in my old town there wasn’t any there either. In comparison to the number of dealers in the US only a small fraction of those are experts in ancient coins and that is the point I was trying to make.

Finding a physical store in the US that has experts in ancients would require doing some research and likely traveling a fair distance.

 

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Very true. Fortunately, we have the internet! No need now to drive around trying to find a local shop specializing in ancients.

 

Exactly! "Most people" wouldn't go online and search for "coin dealers near me" in the first place if they were interested in buying ancient coins. It's 2022. It doesn't take long to figure out how few brick and mortar coin stores in the USA specialize in ancient coins, or to find online platforms like VCoins with dealers who are experts in that field. I think I'm being conservative by suggesting that the overwhelming majority of ancient coin purchases by U.S. buyers are made online. And if they're made in person, they're far more likely to be made at coin shows and in-person auctions (all of which have an online component anyway) than at retail stores. That's been true for a long time.

The same is true of world coins and medals: except for what I bought at retail stores during a couple of trips to the UK, I was buying almost all of my British coins and historical/commemorative medals online as long ago as 1999. And before then, I bought them by mail from fixed-price lists issued by dealers who advertised in coin magazines, as well as through mail-bid auctions. Not in person.

 

I respect both you and @Herodotus. I suggest that instead of insulting each other, you simply put each other on ignore. Easy-peasy!

 

Oh wow I’ve been reading what Tacitus says about Vitellius and even though his opinion is definitely negative towards Vitellius he still admits 2 very important changes that Vitellius made to how the Roman government worked.

• Vitellius ended the practice of centurions selling furloughs and exemptions of duty to their men, a change Tacitus describes as being adopted by 'all good emperors'.
• He also expanded the offices of the Imperial administration beyond the imperial pool of freedmen, allowing those of the Equites to take up positions in the Imperial civil service.