Over the years I've bought some very nice coins on Ebay and have cultivated a number of relationships with sellers, one of whom emailed me a couple of weeks ago and said that he had some Constantinian ae's that I might be interested in. I trust the guy and bought blind and was pleasantly surprised when the first group came through with three keepers at least; A couple of 'not in RIC's' and a very nice imitative VIRTVS AVGG camp gate with no doors (footnote on page 206 of RIV VII alludes to a similar 'irregular' example) were the keepers.
It is a little sad that good looking coins are only keepers if they are not in RIC. How many of us could identify what you call a keeper in that group even if we had RIC in hand? That the irregular one outranks the officials is also interesting. Of course the number of keepers would vary depending on the unit price. That you did not say.
I like them all, particularly #7. I love a portrait where you can see the shoulder of the emperor's armor. Always looks aesthetically pleasing!
In times past I would have kept them all and often did so I now strictly limit myself to an example of each. If any of these had in some way been better than the example in my collection then it would have replaced it, none were apart from the three mentioned.
