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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3061563, member: 19463&quot;]Yes but the number made means absolutely nothing.&nbsp; The question is how many exist.&nbsp; If a single day&#039;s production of an ancient mint had been placed in a pot that was sent to one military paymaster but it were stored away intact only to be discovered today, those 5,000 denarii would be common today even if that one day was the only day the type was made.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have long been interested in the coins of Septimius Severus from the period of his wars with Pescennius Niger.&nbsp; I have an interest in the coins of Pescennius also but his denarii tend to sell for 10 to 50 times the price of the equivalent Septimius.&nbsp; Long ago, I was told hat this was explained by Septimius having outlawed possession of the coins of Pescennius after the wars.&nbsp; True?&nbsp; I have no idea.&nbsp; There is one interesting thing in my view.&nbsp; The relatively rare coins of Pescennius seem to come from many more different dies and represent many more different type/legend variations than did the Eastern mint coins of Septimius.&nbsp; This would seem to support the idea that there were once many more coins that no longer exist now.&nbsp; This does not prove demonetization but it makes sense as one explanation. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I started collecting ancients price lists and auction catalogs often illustrated only the better coins with photos.&nbsp; If you were to take a stack of 1000 auction catalogs from the 20th century and counted the coins imaged in the plates only, you might suspect that coins of Septimius Severus were as rare as those of Pescennius.&nbsp; No one would sell a valuable coin without illustrating it and most of them appeared in &#039;better&#039; sales while coins like those of Septimius only would make the catalogs if they were rare varieties or in magnificent condition.&nbsp; That has changed now in this day of digital photography but we do still see a hundred worn denarii of Otho, Pescennius or Didius Julianus for every low grade Septimius.&nbsp; This makes perfect business sense but explains why using such records as evidence of mintage or survival makes no sense whatsoever.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have been aware of the wonderful studies of Otho by Jyrki Muona.&nbsp; I wish we had similar studies for all emperors.&nbsp; It would be possible for someone like Didius Julianus but very difficult for even someone like Pescennius Niger because of the larger number of types.&nbsp; Doing this for someone like Septimius, Trajan or Constantine crosses the limits of reason.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A question:</p><p>There are quite a few coins of Pescennius Niger and a few of Septimius Severus known today by only one or a very few examples.&nbsp; Is this also the case for Otho?&nbsp;&nbsp; To the casual observer it seems there were only ten types for Otho and all are relatively close in count.&nbsp; Did all the rare types of Otho just disappear?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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