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<p>[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 4665630, member: 75937"]Those are lovely coins, [USER=113686]@Egry[/USER], each an addition you are rightfully proud of.</p><p><br /></p><p>The concept of rarity in ancient coins is difficult to pin down because it can be difficult to make an accurate census of surviving copies of any given type. Moreover, the discovery of a new hoard may instantly double or quadruple the number of known examples.</p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, given the vast variety of ancient coins -- particularly in the field of Roman provincial coinage -- there is much truth to the adage, "there is nothing as common in ancient numismatics as a rare coin." I'd venture that many of us have coins that have never been described before in the numismatic literature.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, we are left with methods such as [USER=14873]@jamesicus[/USER] describes. In general, the harder a coin is to come by, the rarer it is. Take your Aemilian antoninianus, for example.</p><p><br /></p><p>First of all, you've misattributed it as RIC 7, which has the obverse legend, IMP AEMILIANVS P F AVG. Yours has the obverse legend IMP CAES AEMILIANVS P F AVG, as well as a standard between the emperor and the tripod on the reverse, making it RIC 18.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150610[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>A <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Aemilian+Antoninianus+Patera+-supera&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0&currency=usd&company=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Aemilian+Antoninianus+Patera+-supera&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0&currency=usd&company=" rel="nofollow">search at acsearchinfo for "Aemilian Antoninianus Patera -supera"</a> (which will pick up RIC 7, 16, 17 and 18, all commonly mistaken for each other), reveals eight examples of RIC 18, including <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6194557" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6194557" rel="nofollow">yours</a>, which appeared at a Roma auction August 22, 2019. You can throw in the <a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/aemilian/RIC_0018.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/aemilian/RIC_0018.jpg" rel="nofollow">one from Lanz up at Wildwinds</a> and <a href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=55872" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=55872" rel="nofollow">this one</a> from CNG (misattributed as RIC 7). That's about an example being auctioned off every year and a half or so, not counting those that may be for sale at retail, not auction. The <a href="http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aemilian&city=&type=3" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aemilian&city=&type=3" rel="nofollow">coinproject has no examples</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>One can search for copies in museum collections, such as at <a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4.aem.18" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4.aem.18" rel="nofollow">OCRE</a>, which notes four examples. I <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Aemilian&keyword=patera" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Aemilian&keyword=patera" rel="nofollow">searched for "Aemilian patera" at the British Museum</a> site and it came up with examples of RIC 7 and 16, but not 18. Cohen (no. 33), cites an example in the French national collection (BnF).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150622[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>So, that makes 15 copies of RIC 18 I could find online, so it's definitely somewhere on the rare-scarce spectrum. But how many are in museum collections that haven't digitized their collections? How many are in private hands at the present time? What is the total number of coins such as the OP coin in existence? Fewer than 25? 50? 100? 200? It's hard to say. Certainly, by any standard used by modern coin collectors, that would be a extreme rarity. But by ancient coin standards -- where it is not unusual for a collector to have a coin known from only one or two other examples -- what's the proper modifier for the word <i>rare</i> in the case of the OP coin? <i>Extremely</i> rare? <i>Very</i> rare? <i>Quite</i> rare? Or is it just plain old <i>rare</i>?</p><p><br /></p><p>I know that doesn't answer your question, [USER=113686]@Egry[/USER] , nor does it address the issue of semantic saturation of dealer listings that use superlatives with <i>rare</i>, but that's the nature of language itself. In any event, you have something special and hard to come by.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 4665630, member: 75937"]Those are lovely coins, [USER=113686]@Egry[/USER], each an addition you are rightfully proud of. The concept of rarity in ancient coins is difficult to pin down because it can be difficult to make an accurate census of surviving copies of any given type. Moreover, the discovery of a new hoard may instantly double or quadruple the number of known examples. Moreover, given the vast variety of ancient coins -- particularly in the field of Roman provincial coinage -- there is much truth to the adage, "there is nothing as common in ancient numismatics as a rare coin." I'd venture that many of us have coins that have never been described before in the numismatic literature. So, we are left with methods such as [USER=14873]@jamesicus[/USER] describes. In general, the harder a coin is to come by, the rarer it is. Take your Aemilian antoninianus, for example. First of all, you've misattributed it as RIC 7, which has the obverse legend, IMP AEMILIANVS P F AVG. Yours has the obverse legend IMP CAES AEMILIANVS P F AVG, as well as a standard between the emperor and the tripod on the reverse, making it RIC 18. [ATTACH=full]1150610[/ATTACH] A [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Aemilian+Antoninianus+Patera+-supera&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0¤cy=usd&company=']search at acsearchinfo for "Aemilian Antoninianus Patera -supera"[/URL] (which will pick up RIC 7, 16, 17 and 18, all commonly mistaken for each other), reveals eight examples of RIC 18, including [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6194557']yours[/URL], which appeared at a Roma auction August 22, 2019. You can throw in the [URL='http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/aemilian/RIC_0018.jpg']one from Lanz up at Wildwinds[/URL] and [URL='https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=55872']this one[/URL] from CNG (misattributed as RIC 7). That's about an example being auctioned off every year and a half or so, not counting those that may be for sale at retail, not auction. The [URL='http://www.coinproject.com/search_emperor.php?emp=Aemilian&city=&type=3']coinproject has no examples[/URL]. One can search for copies in museum collections, such as at [URL='http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.4.aem.18']OCRE[/URL], which notes four examples. I [URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Aemilian&keyword=patera']searched for "Aemilian patera" at the British Museum[/URL] site and it came up with examples of RIC 7 and 16, but not 18. Cohen (no. 33), cites an example in the French national collection (BnF). [ATTACH=full]1150622[/ATTACH] So, that makes 15 copies of RIC 18 I could find online, so it's definitely somewhere on the rare-scarce spectrum. But how many are in museum collections that haven't digitized their collections? How many are in private hands at the present time? What is the total number of coins such as the OP coin in existence? Fewer than 25? 50? 100? 200? It's hard to say. Certainly, by any standard used by modern coin collectors, that would be a extreme rarity. But by ancient coin standards -- where it is not unusual for a collector to have a coin known from only one or two other examples -- what's the proper modifier for the word [I]rare[/I] in the case of the OP coin? [I]Extremely[/I] rare? [I]Very[/I] rare? [I]Quite[/I] rare? Or is it just plain old [I]rare[/I]? I know that doesn't answer your question, [USER=113686]@Egry[/USER] , nor does it address the issue of semantic saturation of dealer listings that use superlatives with [I]rare[/I], but that's the nature of language itself. In any event, you have something special and hard to come by.[/QUOTE]
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