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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orfew, post: 4668891, member: 74968&quot;]I thought I would have a little fun with this table and my collection.[ATTACH=full]1151123[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>First, A for abundant. As a type this is a very common coin. If you wanted one you should have no trouble finding one. However, the general rarity does not say all there is to say about this coin. This coin is a rarity because it is a known hoard coin. Its find spot is a matter of record. How many people have a hoard coin in their collection ?</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151124[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>C for Common</p><p><br /></p><p>If you went looking for one of these you could probably find one without too much trouble. Not abundant but not scarce either. I wanted this one for the portrait.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151125[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>S for scarce</p><p><br /></p><p>Though not a rare coin, this one is not easy to find either. If you really wanted to you might find one after a few months or perhaps a year of searching and or waiting for one to appear.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151126[/ATTACH]</p><p>R is for Rare</p><p>Album&#039;s description of Rare perfectly describes this next coin. When these do appear competition for them follows. While not desperately rare, they appear only once in a while. This coin is one of only 2 types of denarii with this reverse legend. For a Flavian collector this coin is a must have. However it would also be attractive to non Flavian specialists because of the interesting reverse. The coin may also be interesting because of the unusual portrait. in addition the coin would interest anyone who liked non Rome mint denarii. RIC says uncertain Spanish mint, but I think this coin was probably struck in Tarraco. Add up these factors and you get a very desirable coin for many collectors. There are not enough to go around however and this increases the competition and price for this type.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151127[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>RR is for very rare</p><p><br /></p><p>Some coins are extremely hard to find if you are looking for one. The coin below is RIC 655 for Domitian. The reason for the rarity is the rare date fo this coin as constructed from the collection of titles. This is a coin for a specialist because no one else would care. For this reason this would not be an expensive coin if you found one. I very much doubt you would have much luck.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151128[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In contrast the following very rare coin is a completely different case. Yes, it is very rare but it is also very different from the many Minerva type denarii one comes across. This one has the legend in the fields on the reverse. However while this would be interesting to a Flavian collector it would not only be those collectors interested in this coin. The very attractive reverse and the superb portrait would make this a great coin for anyone who had just one Domitian. These do pop up from time to time but again there is quite a lot of competition for them for the reasons mentioned above.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151131[/ATTACH]</p><p>RRR is for extremely rare</p><p>I reserve this category for coins that have only a few known examples. however, not all of these would be desirable or expensive. Having said that the following 2 coins would be both desirable and expensive if one were a a collector of Flavian coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is the RIC reference coin. It is rare for that reason alone because most of the RIC reference coins are in museums and are unavailable to collectors. So it is already a desirable coin for that reason. The PAX seated reverse has to be one of if not the most common reverses for Vespasian. Also, there are other denarii with left facing portraits of Vespasian so that does not necessarily make the coin rare. However, the bare headed portrait left is very rare indeed. It only occurs on 2 types of denarii for Vespasian RIC 773 and RIC 853. I believe there are 8 known examples of RIC 853 ([USER=88526]@Jay GT4[/USER] ) has one in his collection. However, the coin below is RIC&nbsp; 773. When I bought this coin it was the only known example. Since then [USER=82616]@David Atherton[/USER] was able to find one so now there are 2 known. The fact is though that all of this may be lost on anyone not collecting Flavian coins. I do like to think however that this coin would bring some competition for some of the reasons above.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151133[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin below is a coin of Titus as Caesar struck under Vespasian. It is also a RIC plate coin and is therefore very rare for reasons discussed earlier. Again this is the coin of a specialist. Sure maybe some may be interested because it is a plate coin but the type itself is rather dull imho. Yes it has the rare short reverse legend. Also it is one of only 2 known to exist. Still this coin would probably not be sought after by anyone casually collecting the denarii of Titus. however, the coin is quite thrilling to me.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1151135[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>There are many ways of discussing rarity and desirability and sometimes these even overlap. As for me I just collect what I like and what I find interesting.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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