hey I need some help with a roman coin. Pescennius Niger AR DENARIUS Antioch mint AD 193-194 /IMP CAES C PESC NIGER IVST AVG/ /FORTVNAE REDVCI/ RIC IV 26D is this correct ? an estimate price ?
The attribution is correct and it looks real. Cant say what the value is though due to its wear and alot missing from it.
thank you Mr Mat what do you think about this price on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/261155998259?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
Mr. Mat i bother you again with another coin this time a rare one i like to think Constans, Nicomedia mint. /FL CONSTANS NOB CAES, LDC/ / GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS/ SMNA t Mintmark: SMNA. RIC VII Nicomedia 193 R4 333-335 AD http://www.ebay.com/itm/261155994322?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 I bought this coin pretty cheap,I wanna ask you if the coin is correct with description and if you know some information about this coin I should be glad to hear.it is a R4 rare coin but at 50$ i dont have too many interested about the coin. Rare or a common with problem in RIC ?
IMHO you are much more likely to get $100 for half a Pescennnius than $50 for a broken Constans. RIC rarities are little more than jokes and the market for coins that earn R4 based on a minor mintmark variation would be largely limited to nicer coins. I doubt this coin would sell for $5. There are people out there who really want a Niger and might consider a big piece of one at the right price. I would not be surprised if someone bought it for $100 since the number of these available at that price is pretty small. Some of us are more bothered by a coin being broken than others. Niger coins tend to be bad metal that breaks easily so this coin could be rated as better than some just because you have the important parts of the face. If I owned the coin, I'd keep it. I would not pay $100 for it but someone will. I am very hard on missing pieces. I'm no expert but I'd guess this one as Caesarea mint by style. There has been a lot of study on these since RIC came out and I don't keep up with coins I can't afford. My only one is what I'm calling Antioch and cost $140 a decade ago.
letitbe, I think Dougsmit said it best. RIC rarities mean very little. Plus rarities are not a big deal in ancients like moderns unless you find someone in the ancient world trying to complete a set. But I saw you lowered the price & $10 is better start.
thank you mr. dougsmit, i understand the point i have a Pescennnius in my collection and this is the reason for selling this. yah 100$ is ok for this coin, in fact a vf coin of Pescennnius is over $1k soo i think the coin will be sold over 150$(in real looks better than picture) about the Constans, i hope someone will like the coin verry nice and smart people here! thanks mr dougsmit and mr mat
I agree with both Mat and Doug of course. The Constans as a type is about as common as there is in LRB's. It must be some rare little field mark or something. The problem with RIC is that they based their rarity scale both 80 years ago before Eastern European material started coming on the market strongly, as well as mostly only assessing museum collections. This leads to a tremendous amount of VERY common eastern european mint coins on the market today being listed as "rare" in RIC. Unless a person knows this market WELL, I would never advise them paying over general type value for any LRB. Please, do not ever fall for "RIC rarity 4" or whatever people. MAYBE a coin listed in RIC is rare, maybe its not, and even if it is if only 2 people on the planet care then it can be rare all day long and still only worht common price.
