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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3126668, member: 75937&quot;]My standard? Pretty low. It just has to be identifiable.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m partially joking here. There is no simple answer to this question when it comes to ancient coins. There are times when having high standards with regard to condition makes sense. If you are simply trying to accumulate one coin per emperor in a Roman collection or one coin per city in a Greek collection -- with no attention to variety -- it makes sense to have high standards. The well-heeled collector will have no trouble assembling a 12-Caesars portrait set of denarii in FDC condition.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, if one is a specialist collector, you have to take what you can get. The specialist often encounters coins that are in suboptimal condition but only come on the market once a decade, if that. I specialize in Antonine women. These coins, for example, may look common, but they are scarce varieties that have only come up for sale a few times in the past 20 years:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]796839[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]796854[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Now these coins aren&#039;t unattractive, to be sure, but they don&#039;t grade higher than VF.</p><p><br /></p><p>When it comes to Roman provincial coins, the specialist collector is at a particular disadvantage. The mintage of any particular issue was limited and there are numerous provincial coins which are apparently unpublished or known from only one or two examples. Try to find any of these for sale:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]796856[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]796857[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]796865[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Some coins typically circulated for decades and even the specimens in museums are well-worn, such as this semi-autonomous issue from Smyrna:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]796862[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Provincials collectors can&#039;t be too choosy. Have you looked at the plates in Lindgren? Had Henry Clay Lindgren been concerned about condition and grade, he wouldn&#039;t have had much of a collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>My advice runs counter to that a beginner often hears. Don&#039;t be such a condition crank that you pass on fun and enjoyable coins. Don&#039;t obsess about the faults of the coins you do own, but look at each coin as a learning opportunity. That coin with the ragged flan illustrates ancient flan preparation techniques. The off-center provincial with the interesting reverse type may never come up at auction again in a decade. The well-worn sestertius of Antoninus Pius was handled by thousands of people in ancient times and passed through the hands of laborers and gladiators and slaves and merchants and aristocrats.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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