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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Fugio1, post: 4556916, member: 89970&quot;]Several years ago, when I began to be fascinated with early Roman Republican silver, I bought a small group of anonymous denarii at a large coin show.&nbsp; The first coin pictured was among them, and condition-wise was the best of the lot.&nbsp; At that point I was just learning about these early denarii and I attributed this coin as the fully anonymous Crawford 53/2.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1128202[/ATTACH]</p><p>After some study, and after looking at hundreds of early denarii, I finally realized that the style was different from 53/2 and determined that this was actually RRC 57/2 – the early crescent symbol series.&nbsp;&nbsp; The crescent on this piece is obscured by the off center reverse (one can barely discern the bottom of the crescent just above and between the head of the Dioscuri).&nbsp; Still a beautiful coin and would certainly be graded at least EF by most cataloguers, but not a good representative of the type, with the all-important symbol off-flan.&nbsp; This coin, in spite of it’s overall beauty has bothered me for years and it has sensitized me about centering, an attribute I rarely compromise on nowadays.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the recent Bertolami sale I made a reasonable bid on the coin below and was awarded the lot.&nbsp; It is of course, not as high grade as my other example,&nbsp; but to me, it is a better example of the type.&nbsp; The reverse on this coin is also slightly off center but it really doesn’t obscure anything important, and although not the crispness of detail of an EF, I would suggest that a grade of good VF wouldn&#039;t be too controversial.&nbsp; Because this is a better representative of the type, I think this is an upgrade.&nbsp; What do you think?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1128204[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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