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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1830564, member: 19463&quot;]Another sad coin I bought in ignorance:&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]302185[/ATTACH] </p><p>...but why show it here on the Vota page?&nbsp;&nbsp; When I bought this as of Antoninus Pius, I was impressed by the clear obverse legends </p><p>ANTONINVSAVG PIVSPPTRPXI</p><p>and even the COSIII SC on the reverse.&nbsp; The standing figure of Pius sacrificing even has some facial detail so, for my low end collection, it seemed a decent F+&nbsp; bronze.&nbsp; It seemed the sort of coin I collect.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, when looking it up in my British Museum Catalog (BMCRE vol. IV #1816) and Sear #4323 I discovered that the coin should have had VOTA in the reverse exergue.&nbsp; With a bit of imagination you can see a trace of OT but I did not notice those ghosts of legends past until BMC told me to look for them.&nbsp; Perhaps this is the disadvantage to buying coins in person at a show.&nbsp; You have to decide there and then without referring to your books.&nbsp; Even if I had BMCRE IV on my Nook, there was nothing about the coin that would have made me take the effort to look it up before putting the coin in my pile to purchase. </p><p><br /></p><p>It is amazing how some letters of the legend can carry more importance in my mind than others and I would really like the coin a lot more if it had a good strong VOTA.&nbsp; I do not think the dealer that sold it knew either but what struck me as a highlight of my adoptive period collection suddenly became just another as.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>This brings up a subject that I know finds me in the minority.&nbsp; I avoid buying pretty coins that are missing something important.&nbsp; For example I really don&#039;t want fourth century coins without bold mintmarks (not that I don&#039;t have many).&nbsp; I could live with this coin had it been missing many random letters but was happy it had the bold TRP XI date and mourn the lost VOTA.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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