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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3272748, member: 19463&quot;]I agree today but find it interesting that I believe this is a bit more recent a development.&nbsp; My first recollection of the hobby in the late 1950&#039;s and early 1960&#039;s was mostly in local coin shops usually on an upper floor of an office building downtown.&nbsp; This was before I discovered printed (unillustrated) price lists.&nbsp; These dealers had nice coins in trays and boxes but my main source were dishes on the counter labelled 50 cents (junkers!), $2 or $5.&nbsp; The coins in these dishes were rarely late Roman.&nbsp; Most were worn to fine or below bronzes and silver from the first to mid-third centuries.&nbsp; They were lower grade examples of the same coins in the expensive trays.&nbsp; One day I got a Didius Julienus and a Manlia Scantilla for 50 cents each.&nbsp; Both had two or three legible letters and rough surfaces.&nbsp; I assume they were the culls from a collection the shop owner bought from someone who walked in.&nbsp; The most common things in the $5 dishes were Fine adoptive period denarii of no particular special interest.&nbsp; The $2 ones included well worn sestertii.&nbsp; I spent a long time agonizing over which ones were worth the money.&nbsp; I rarely bought from the $5 group.&nbsp; I only have one coin left from that group before I switched to mail order lists. I kept it when I sold my collection in 1974.&nbsp; I doubt anyone here can tell what I thought made it special but I guarantee it was nothing to do with the grade.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]863437[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>What I don&#039;t remember seeing was the coinage of the 30 Tyrants or later.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know if that was kept separately or beneath the notice of the old men who ran those shops.&nbsp; Considering what you could get for $2 then ($20+ now?) I would expect average late Romans to have been 25 cents.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I was in high school then and may just have ignored the little bronzes.&nbsp; Do any of our other long term collectors recall those days?&nbsp; Were there may people who were looking for the later coins?&nbsp; I probably got started with Septimius Severus because his coins were nicer and cheaper.&nbsp; I can&#039;t believe I would not have bought Probus and the Tetrarchs had they been there.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Now we have eBay.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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