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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1790359, member: 19463&quot;]Unfortunately way too many dealers do not own or use the reference works they quote but find a similar coin somewhere and copy the information there without considering the minor differences in the coins that change the numbers, mint ID&#039;s or even rulers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Certainly there are hundreds of sellers who know their coins but at least as many have as little background in coins as our newer members here.&nbsp; I&#039;m certainly part of the problem since I buy coins I want from sellers even if that seller is a complete fool.&nbsp; I do believe that those of us who can not look at a coin and understand why (why on this coin, not just that it is) an M is not a C or a Q an O would be well advised to avoid dealers who can not assist you to learn more about your coins while they are taking your money.&nbsp; &nbsp; There are plenty of good sellers.&nbsp; Learn from them while you patronize them.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]288818[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I&#039;m sorry I do not have an RIC 624 to show but I believe mine here is a 632 with the addition of PROBI to the reverse legend.&nbsp; The sharp eyed among you may say that it also has a captive at the foot of the horse and is from workshop B but neither of those facts are enough to change the RIC number.&nbsp; To RIC, it makes no difference that the officina number was listed in a Greek numeral (B=2) rather than Roman ordinal (2 would have been S for secundus, I believe, which would require some care to tell from the Greek numeral for 6 which looks like an S but is a bit more squiggly).&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;ve not seen both from this issue together but hope I am not leading astray here (help, Martin, please).&nbsp; The shop letter could even be moved away from the XXI an placed up in the field according to the RIC listing and my coin would still be a 632.&nbsp; Example of 624 in field:</p><p><a href="http://probvs.net/probvs/R624/R624.260204.PG.JPG" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://probvs.net/probvs/R624/R624.260204.PG.JPG" rel="nofollow">http://probvs.net/probvs/R624/R624.260204.PG.JPG</a></p><p>I&#039;m a bit more bothered buy both 624 and 632 listing the captive as &quot;sometimes a captive at foot&quot; so his presence or absence is not important enough for a new number either.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>RIC is the best book I own on these coin but that is not saying that it is any good.&nbsp; I realize there are other works I never bought in languages I never bothered to learn.&nbsp; My bad.&nbsp; There are websites of value:</p><p><a href="http://probvs.net/probvs/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://probvs.net/probvs/" rel="nofollow">http://probvs.net/probvs/</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>My continuing song here is that catalog numbers are either important enough that you should buy the book and make an effort to get right or unimportant enough that you don&#039;t need them in a write up about the coin.&nbsp; The OP coin is a really nice specimen deserving of a proper identification at least NOT to include erroneous numbers copied from unreliable sources.&nbsp;&nbsp; I suppose most will say I am being too picky complaining that Probus here is not wearing a &#039;rad helmet&#039; but a &#039;radiant crown&#039;.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you are going to allow this spiky thing to be called a helmet, what will you call the ones where he has this crown on top of a visored and fancy metal hat?&nbsp;&nbsp; Traditional listings would call this a radiant bust (not using the word crown) &#039;in Imperial Mantle&#039; (or sometimes &#039;Consular Robes&#039;).&nbsp; This portrait highlights Probus as the leader of the civilian state.&nbsp; When he wears a helmet and wears armor, he is being shown as Commander in Chief of the armies.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I wish I could afford to collect Probus.&nbsp; He has a thousand really neat coins from mints with distinctive styles.&nbsp; It is no wonder that his coins are so popular.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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