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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 7468427, member: 19463&quot;]The old saying is that there is nothing more common than a rare coin.&nbsp; This is doubly true when it comes to ancients.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a sad fact.&nbsp; I have had coins that I believed to be one of a kind for decades only to have others turn up.&nbsp; In some cases, I have two or three now myself.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am happy to see CNG recognizing that the coin is &quot;currently unique&quot;.&nbsp; Dealers tend to use the term &quot;unique&quot; for anything they have not sold before and not a single one has asked me if I have one like their specimen.&nbsp; Assuming they have not checked ten thousand other private collections, it is quite possible they have missed a few others.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the area of specialty maridvnvm and I share, rare coins tend to have been struck for only one die set.&nbsp; The problem is that when you see only one coin there is no way of knowing whether there ever were any other dies used so you can&#039;t make an educated guess on how many were made and lost.&nbsp; The examples I will show here are two variant of the very common denarius of Julia Domna.&nbsp;&nbsp; Both are a bit more scarce by virtue of being from an Eastern (Syrian) mint.&nbsp; Both were struck from the same obverse die but used different reverses.&nbsp; Both reverses expanded the usual legend VENER VICTR completing the last word to VICTRICI.</p><p><br /></p><p>For Comparison,&nbsp; normal VENER VICTR but scarce by being Eastern mint style:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293441[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>VENER VICTRICI&nbsp; This is the only one I have seen.&nbsp; Are there 10,000 others?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293442[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This reverse completes both words and substitutes B for the R in each word.&nbsp; Using B for R is a common Eastern substitution in the East where Latin was not the primary language.&nbsp;&nbsp; VENEBI VICTBICI&nbsp; Is this more rare or are there 10,000 more of these out there in places I have not checked? </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293443[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, we need to address the question whether the above three coins are all different or all the same type.&nbsp; Of course there will be people who consider all denarii of Julia Domna are the same since they only collect one coin per person but there are more who see no difference even in the similar issues of the Rome mint (super common).&nbsp; Rome did tend to spell out VENERI but I have never seen a VICTRICI from Rome.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293452[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>......or from the mint of Alexandria (rare as a whole but existing in more than one die/spelling variation of which some may be &quot;currently unique&quot; but some are owned by more than one person here on Coin Talk).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293449[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Like I said, there is nothing more common than a rare ancient coin ...... unless, perhaps, it is a coin that is &quot;currently unique&quot; in the eyes of its current owner.&nbsp;&nbsp; I hate to show any coin labeled &quot;unique&quot; since that tends to flush others from their hiding spots.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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