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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Meat man, post: 25243137, member: 135271&quot;]The past several months I&#039;ve been working at shifting my collection from &#039;lots of average coins&#039; to &#039;fewer coins but of higher quality&#039;. Part of that has involved selling off a lot of coins to free up funds for new purchases, and there&#039;s still a bunch more I want to move on.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the meantime, I&#039;ve greatly enjoyed being able to spend a bit more per coin and being a bit more discriminating in what I purchase.</p><p><br /></p><p>Like many people I am drawn to the fine portrait artistry on Roman coins, so I&#039;ve been building a small collection of portrait denarii, prioritizing eye appeal - artistic style, top condition, quality of strike, and toning. Of secondary importance is good full weight, rarity of type, interesting provenance, etc. The goal is to buy the very best I can afford - which naturally varies somewhat by emperor. Needless to say, I won&#039;t be able to acquire them all.</p><p><br /></p><p>My rule is one per emperor, so if I want to upgrade I will have to sell the current coin. Hopefully that will keep it manageable and affordable. I also am trying to keep it to lifetime coins as Augustus, so no &#039;DIVVS&#039; or coins as Caesar.</p><p><br /></p><p>So far I am content with my representations of Augustus, Tiberius, Antoninus Pius, and Septimius Severus. I&#039;ve posted all those before and I won&#039;t bother with them again here.</p><p><br /></p><p>But more recently, I was thrilled to acquire this beautiful denarius of Titus. Not only does it have great &#039;eye appeal&#039;, but it&#039;s also a somewhat rare and historically significant reverse type:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1609317[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><i>TITUS, AD 79-81</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>AR Denarius (18.54mm, 3.34g, 6h)</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>Struck September-December, AD 79. Rome mint</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>Obverse: IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M, laureate head of Titus right</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>Reverse: TR P VIIII IMP XV COS VII P P, bound captive kneeling under trophy of arms and armor</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>References: RIC II 49, RCV 2511 var. (obv. leg.)</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>A choice specimen, sharply struck with a superb portrait.</i></i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i><i>&quot;The reverse type refers either to the victory in Judaea or, alternatively, may be associated with the activities in northern Britain of the celebrated governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law of the historian Tacitus.&quot; - David R. Sear (Roman Coins and Their Values, Vol. I, p. 465)</i></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Being able to afford coins like this takes the hobby to a whole new level for me. I will be posting more later on, so stay tuned. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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