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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hotwheelsearl, post: 4241770, member: 75143&quot;]Ever wonder what you get when you find that one ebay seller who sells &quot;random&quot; Roman coins at different price points? Wonder no longer, as I bought one coin of each price point: $2.95, $4.95, $8.95, $12.95, and $24.95.</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Treasure or beginner&#039;s trap?</i> </p><p><br /></p><p><b>LETS FIND OUT!</b></p><p><br /></p><p>1. $2.95 price point. </p><p>Advetised as &quot;these coins are intended to be ancient artifacts, not fully identifiable ancient numismatics&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>16 x 22 mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083281[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083282[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Not fully identifiable is right. I couldn&#039;t really figure out how and where to start with this one. I&#039;m sure there&#039;s enough to go off of for someone who&#039;s in the know, but that someone isn&#039;t me.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Worth it?</b></p><p>Yes. For $3 I think this is a great gift for a budding collector, or as a pocket conversation piece.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. $4.95 price point.</p><p>Advertised as &quot;fully identifiable&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>17 mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083283[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083284[/ATTACH] </p><p>This one was pretty tough. I was unable to tease out any letters on the obverse or the reverse. It&#039;s obviously a VOT XX reverse, but beyond that I have no idea.</p><p>The portrait is definitely a post-Constantinian fathead, but I couldn&#039;t make any progress here.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Worth it?</b></p><p>No. I would rather pay $3 for the previous one than $5 for this one. Although it&#039;s <i>technically</i> a more identifiable coin, I prefer the look of the previous</p><p><br /></p><p>3. $8.95 price point. This is getting expensive.</p><p>Advertised as &quot;fully identifiable with sharp details and good color&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>15 mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083285[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083286[/ATTACH] </p><p>Sharp details and good color is RIGHT! I&#039;m pretty confident I can ID this one:</p><p><b>Constantius II RIC 189</b></p><p>This is smaller than the wildwinds listing for a RIC 189 AE3 (19mm), but all the other details seems to match up.</p><p><a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantius_II/i.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantius_II/i.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/constantius_II/i.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Worth it?</b></p><p>Yes. I had fun identifying this one (assuming I even got it right). The details are good, color is nice, and although it&#039;s obviously polished, it has great eye appeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. $12.95 price point. This is starting to reach my hourly wage.</p><p>Advertised as &quot;large, fully identifiable with sharp details and good color. Sizes range from quarter to half dollar&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>22 mm x 20 mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083288[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083289[/ATTACH] </p><p>I was unable to confidently ID this one. It looks very similar to the previous in many respects, so I will tentatively say this is another Constantius II.</p><p>The legends are mostly cut off, so I had little to go off of.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Worth it?</b></p><p>No. Although the portrait looks significantly better, I didn&#039;t like having nowhere to go to ID it. If I had a bit more legend it would have been nice. When you&#039;re spending this much, you really need to be able to confidently ID it. Also, I was hoping for something larger. The listing showed some large sestertius-sized coins, but this was a bit smaller. </p><p><br /></p><p>5. $24.95 price point. This can buy you a reasonable steak dinner at Outback.</p><p>Advertised as &quot;fully identifiable with good details and color&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>18 mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083290[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1083291[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is an attractive coin! Good details with some minor, relatively pleasing toning on the obverse. The portarit is a bit mushy on the high parts, but the eyes are pretty striking. </p><p>I was unable to identify this despite my best efforts. The obverse legend was simply too mushy. The reverse is great, but I was unable to match the legend and image to the obverse.</p><p>I suspect it&#039;s Septimius Severus, but only due to the beard style.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Worth it?</b></p><p>Close, but no. I think for $25 you can find a specific denarius you want, potentially in better condition, and you don&#039;t have to worry about getting a duplicate or something you don&#039;t like. For example, I bought a lot of 3 Postumus antoninianii for $12 each, and each is very attractive, fully identifiable, and generally of a more pleasing nature.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Final verdict:</b></p><p>This is a good way to get started in Roman collecting. For $50 you could do worse. You could spend $50 on uncleans, spend weeks or months cleaning them, and end up with worse coins and worse value than you did here.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Recommended for</b>:</p><p>Newbies just getting started who want a decent introduction to identification.</p><p>Fun gift idea for a fellow collector</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Not recommended for</b>: </p><p>Anyone who knows what they&#039;re doing. Unless you <i>love</i> the thrill of surprise, I would spend the same amount of money on one or two <i>much</i> better coins that you will actively enjoy as a participant in your collection.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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