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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4995837, member: 19463&quot;]If I could have one wish for Coin Talk it would be that more people here subscribe to this theory of collecting.&nbsp; There are many reasons for selecting one coin over another and we each can make our choices. I can have little to say for coins which have grade and price as their most significant feature. Your selectins give us worlds to consider.</p><p><br /></p><p>For Nerva, 99% of us pick a coin for his nose.&nbsp; I&#039;m just as guilty of that as anyone.&nbsp; I wish he had more types of interest but the ones that come to mind are bronzes (VEHICVLATIONE ITALIAE REMISSA).&nbsp; I piked tthe denarius with hands.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199620[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>My favorite Nerva is actually a Trajan but shows Nerva and Trajan on the reverse. The great accomplishment of Nerva was adopting Trajan and setting up the adoptive dynasty.&nbsp; This early portrait even makes Trajan look like Nerva.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199624[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Like you, I believed a travel coin is best for Hadrian.&nbsp; Since you showed the obvious Egypt coin, I&#039;ll post a galley carrying Hadrian to all those places.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199629[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I do not have an Aelius denarius.</p><p><br /></p><p>Antoninus Pius got his Pius due to his dispute with the Senate over the question of the deification of Hadrian&nbsp; That would make the obvious choice one of his earliest coins lacking the title Augustus&nbsp; during the period he was negotiating with the Senate.&nbsp; None of the reverses seem more appropriate than others so I&#039;ll show the Diana.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199639[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>For Aurelius, I will show the adoption issue showing the young Caesar on the reverse of what is actually a coin of Antoninus Pius.&nbsp; The main reason I consider this appropriate is that Aurelius failed to learn the lesson of the dynasty and find someone worthy of succeeding him.&nbsp; Marcus Aurelius is famous for his philosophy but his primary effect on Rome was leaving the purple to his worthless son Commodus.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199640[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>You made the obvious choice for Commodus so I will just show the other reverse option available. It rubs in the point with all the weapons of Hercules on the reverse.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199642[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>That leaves Lucius Verus.&nbsp; Pius was required by Hadrian to adopt Verus, son of the late Aelius along with the more able Aurelius.&nbsp; They seemed to get along better than the average Roman co-Augusti.&nbsp; I only have one denarius of Verus and it is nothing special so I will go off instructions and show a sestertius.&nbsp; I believe there is no better choice to represent the man.&nbsp; I say this because of the line from his biography in the Augustan History (SHA) while relating the activities of this wild-child emperor.</p><p>&quot; It was his wont also to hurl<b> large coins</b> into the cook-shops and therewith smash the cups.&quot;&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Lucius_Verus*.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Lucius_Verus*.html" rel="nofollow">http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Lucius_Verus*.html</a> </p><p>It is probable that his cup smashing days were over before the sestertii bore his portrait.&nbsp; My example shows him getting along with Aurelius.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1199648[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/members/curtisimo.83845/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/members/curtisimo.83845/">Curtisimo</a>, thank you for finding the time to be part of the CT family.&nbsp; I always enjoyed your posts from years past and look forward to more in the near future.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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