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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 3436108, member: 56859&quot;]Provincials can be &quot;rustic and crude&quot;; so can imperials.&nbsp; When I want a <i>beautiful</i> coin I tend to shop in the Greek aisle, although beautiful Roman imperial and provincial coins exist.</p><p><br /></p><p>What attracts me to provincials is the wider range of reverse scenes, the expanded pantheon, and in general the greater mystery and unknown.&nbsp; Imperials are comparatively well studied--&nbsp; some RIC volumes assign different classification numbers based on the smallest of details (just look at the spate of Flavian rarities we&#039;ve seen lately).&nbsp;&nbsp; Provincials are less well studied or perhaps just less well organized in terms of cohesive cataloguing.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a generalization, perhaps imperials have greater appeal for people who like order and detail, people who enjoy studying looking for subtle differences, people who like to check things off lists.&nbsp; Perhaps it is also easier to see known Roman history in the imperial coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; I gravitate towards odd reverse scenes, uncommon or unusual deities, and the unknown and those types of coins are more common in provincials.</p><p><br /></p><p>Portraits aren&#039;t of great interest to me although a fine style portrait or, conversely, an exceptionally <i>bad</i> portrait, might make me notice a particular coin even if the reverse is not exciting.&nbsp; If you are focused on portraiture, imperials are certainly the way to go for Roman coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps the best thing is to collect both!&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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