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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4665653, member: 19463&quot;]I fear it is time to trot out that old truth,&quot;The third known example went unsold because there are only two people who care and they already have one.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Many of us have a coin that is possibly the only one known or the only one not in a public collection like the British Museum.&nbsp; In many cases that refers to some unusual combination of minor details that mean something only to a specialist.&nbsp; Much better are coins of a type completely different and not known in another or many other examples.&nbsp; These are certainly rare.&nbsp; They tend not to sell all that often because the current owner values the item higher than the potential buyers.&nbsp; That beings us to the other old saying, &quot;There is nothing more common than a rare ancient coin.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>A few rare examples:</p><p>This sestertius of Divus Caracalla is the worse of two I have seen.&nbsp; There is a drawing of one in the Banti book on sestertii which may be one of the two.&nbsp; What makes it exceptionally rare is that this die has one fewer step on the altar than the more common (only very rare?) type.&nbsp; Who cares?&nbsp; I do.&nbsp; I wish I had bought the other one when I saw it.&nbsp; With no demand for bronze disease survivors of any type I don&#039;t expect it to make my heirs wealthy.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150613[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Because it is left facing and an interesting reverse, this as of Geta would sell well if it were higher grade but, again, there are not many people who are beating down the doors for mid grade things like this.&nbsp; I value it higher than you but my heirs don&#039;t care.&nbsp; I hope yours will.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150615[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The late Roger Bickford-Smith, the Eastern mint expert of his day, told me that, of my coins, he wanted this the most.&nbsp; The Invicto Imp type is common for Septimius from &#039;Emesa&#039; but this one is definitely Alexandria style.&nbsp; He had seen none and students of that level can overlook &#039;ugly as sin&#039; grade when necessary.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150619[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Some coins are only rare if you consider grade.&nbsp; If there are 1000 examples of a coin and 950 of them low grade, the fifty will be classified as rare and be in demand by people who have seen the bad ones.&nbsp; I don&#039;t tend to collect these.&nbsp; Of the 50, there will be one that is mint state and the best known.&nbsp; I am never even tempted to bid on these but we have several members here that specialize in them.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Errors make a special class of rarity.&nbsp; Each can be unique but only is in demand as it relates to others illustrating that point.&nbsp; I wanted an example of a double strike that corrected a brockage so I wanted the coin below.&nbsp; The fact that it was a Magnentius meant next to nothing.&nbsp; Since errors are common, the people who collect them have to rank them according to just how interesting they are to them. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150621[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Many thousands of Byzantine coins are overstruck on earlier coins.&nbsp; Usually that means a few years earlier.&nbsp; The appeal of this common Anonymous follis is that the undertype was an as of Gordian III and almost 800 years old when overstruck.&nbsp; The obvious question is whether it was a one of a kind thing or if the mint found a mint sack of a thousand and overstruck them all.&nbsp; The number of people in line for this one may change if more are found but I suspect if a large dealer had a thousand of them and marketed them properly, each would sell for more than I was charged for this &#039;novelty&#039; coin.&nbsp; There is nothing more common than a rare ancient coin but there is so much more demand for things known than for things unknown that prices seem odd until you realize that demand drives the market and rarity means nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tilt your head to the left and Gordian is more apparent. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1150626[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>A major expert in our hobby has stated that people want rare coins that they can show to other people&nbsp; who wish they could own one.&nbsp; It is easier to find someone desirous of a high grade Athenian tetradrachm (thousands exist) or any level of Brutus EID MAR denarius (~100 exist).&nbsp; In a practical sense, these are more &#039;rare&#039; than things that are &#039;unique&#039; and unknown.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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