Ras Suarez, author of ERIC II, has announced and posted rarity rankings based on twice as many coins as the previous rankings. The original Excel file is at his Roman Coins Blog http://dirtyoldcoins.com/Roman-Coins-Blog/ and he invited readers to pass it along. I played with it a bit and converted the information to a pdf. I wrote him about it and he wrote back that I could post it. Roman_Ruler_RarityModified2.pdf If that CoinTalk link does not work, I also put it here and this one will work: http://esty.ancients.info/numis/Roman_Ruler_RarityModified2.pdf "MC" stands for "most common", "LC" for "less common." The other abbreviations are well-known. "NA" is for extremely rare emperors whose coins do not appear in his database. We owe Ras thanks for putting in the huge effort to create such a fascinating list.
Awesome ... thanks Curious? => who dropped-off? (there was 207 the last time I saw it!!?) Hmmm => I see that good ol' Trajan has moved from #6 to #2 on the list!! (poor ol' Trajan)
Oh, but Doug & Martin will be happy that Sep-Sev has dropped from #3 to #8 on the list (wow, they're getting more rare as time goes on!!)
Great ressource, thanks I've been trying to ind it out for ages but couldn't, as I knew it's existence but didn't know where to start (even the author's name) Thx again Q
FYI => here is the previous Rarity List (and sweet tread from this past April 2014) https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancient-eric-iis-comparative-rarity-table.245165/ .... thanks again for updating our cool list
Just to show off a bit...i checked the new list to see what I currently have. The first I don't have any coin of is # 67 (Anastasius) and the # 101 (Zeno) What about you guys and gals ? Q
My two rarest are still Libius Severus and Majorian but I do have missing emperors more common than them, of course.
Tranquilina at number 168 is my rarest, followed by Quietus at 138, Drusus at 127 and Nero Claudius Drusus at 123
=> #132 on the new Rarity Scale (#122 on the old Rarity Scale): Aelia Eudoxia AE3 (Constantinople mint) Date: 395-401 AD Diameter: 17.7 mm Weight: 1.5 grams Obverse: AEL EVDOXIA AVG - Diademed and draped bust of Eudoxia, crowned by hand of God. Reverse: GLORIA ROMANORVM - Empress seated on throne, crowned by hand of God; cross left. References: RIC 77 or 78 => #126 on the new Rarity Scale (#132 on the old Rarity Scale): Diva Julia Titi, AE Sestertius Struck under Domitian Rome mint AD 91 Died AD 91 Diameter: 34 mm Weight: 24.31 grams Obverse: Carpentum drawn right by two mules Reverse: Legend around large S C Reference: RIC II 717 (Domitian) Other: 5h … brass-brown patina, roughness and cleaning scratches #44 => Theodosius I is my first missing-ruler on the new list ...
Taking it the other way round is even a better idea. Of course, there are numerous gaps, but my two rarest are # 161 Domitius Domitianus and # 144 Romulus Q
Ras is either a glutton for punishment, or gets a thrill out of the hobby of statistics (in which case, to each his own and more power to him). It was interesting to read his methodology in the first link that Valentinian posted, and it was interesting to note that a few emperors had to play musical chairs. This list, however, is of limited use to me as a collector, since I don't collect by emperor, and it doesn't account for rarities within a particular emperor's ouvre. For instance, I see that Gordian III comes in at #3, and rightfully so considering the heaps of antoniniani, sestertii, and denarii one can buy at any given time. But where would a decent dupondius of his fall? They're at least as scarce as coins of the emperors at the bottom of the list...
ouvre i had to look that word up. i didn't hit until 109, diadumenian. vespasian was my first miss. i personally have more coins of constantius ii than any other ruler. all uncleaned lot coins.
Hey Bing, Tranquillina is very rare on the Roman imperial coin list. However, she is not so rare in the provincial series. That ranking list Ras created and I posted is only for regular Roman imperial coins and does not count Roman Alexandria (where she is more common) or Roman provincial coins (where she is more common). I am attaching his provincial coin data in pdf form. The sample is much smaller and not so thorough. Tranquillina is rank 37 (of 106). Here are Ras's provincial coin statistics:
I just downloaded and saved both PDFs. Pretty handy and thanks to Ras and to you for converting the lists. My rarest is #136 Flavius Victor, then #134 Hanniballianus. I'm going to hold off for now in posting photos and info because I'm going to be passing my 90th Roman Imperial ruler very soon. I'm also using Roman Provincials to fill slots. I'm using it more as a check list to keep track of which ones I have and which ones I don't. I'm aware that some rulers are way more common as provincials.
