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<p>[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 4977543, member: 19463"]The Hadrian is a one in a million combination of individual points collectors value and a few that most collectors never experience. 99% of all sestertii left the mint in less than perfect condition due to strike or flan preparation errors. Big bronze is harder to strike than small silver or gold but less care was regularly put into the production of a coin of lesser value. At this point we might mention that not all designs were created equal. Some were interesting and complex while more were some generic figure standing there. Lets add to that the facts that the mint had more than one person cutting dies and every die was individually cut with the masters ranging from good to great and the new fellow falling in a acceptable to good. Next the coins entered the real world where they served daily transactions buying bread rather than being put in a pot full of saved precious metal. When we find a pot full of bronzes, my mind assumes that it was the cash register of a restaurant or market stall. Each exposure to handling would drop a coin even further down even if it had been one of the few that left the mint in great condition. Next the coins had to find a place to spend nearly 2000 years. Some were luckier than others. Some entered to ground in perfect shape and were eaten alive by chemicals. Others developed pretty protective patinas. Some coins were found by a digger who rubbed it on the face of a brick to reveal the date of the coin. Some were sent to a professional processor who cleaned them in huge batches with varying degrees of success. Some fell in the hands of someone who decided the coin could be improved with a little tooling or smoothing. If we ranked each of the steps along the way on a scale of one to ten it would only take six steps to achieve my 'one in a million' figure but my incomplete list above is over twice that so 'one in a million' is waaaaay to optimistic. The perfect coin in every respect would be one in a million million (each step adds a power of ten). It is a miracle that any coin even approaches a '10' level in every regard. </p><p><br /></p><p>My personal 'best' sestertii rarely rank 10/10 in even one of the categories listed (and I guarantee I neglected to mention one or two at least). Mine strive to rate even a 5/10 with more than a few deserving a few 1/10 ranks. I enjoy rare, interesting and attractive coins just like everyone else but I take what I can get and what I can afford. The coin below is an example. It left the mint with pretty good numbers (maybe a few 9's or even 10's???) but things went straight downhill from there. I have seen few enough of these SAECVLO FRVGIFERO TRP COS sestertii that I was happy to find one even this good. I might have found one twice as good given time and money. I predict one twice this good would sell for over 10x what I paid. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1196011[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 4977543, member: 19463"]The Hadrian is a one in a million combination of individual points collectors value and a few that most collectors never experience. 99% of all sestertii left the mint in less than perfect condition due to strike or flan preparation errors. Big bronze is harder to strike than small silver or gold but less care was regularly put into the production of a coin of lesser value. At this point we might mention that not all designs were created equal. Some were interesting and complex while more were some generic figure standing there. Lets add to that the facts that the mint had more than one person cutting dies and every die was individually cut with the masters ranging from good to great and the new fellow falling in a acceptable to good. Next the coins entered the real world where they served daily transactions buying bread rather than being put in a pot full of saved precious metal. When we find a pot full of bronzes, my mind assumes that it was the cash register of a restaurant or market stall. Each exposure to handling would drop a coin even further down even if it had been one of the few that left the mint in great condition. Next the coins had to find a place to spend nearly 2000 years. Some were luckier than others. Some entered to ground in perfect shape and were eaten alive by chemicals. Others developed pretty protective patinas. Some coins were found by a digger who rubbed it on the face of a brick to reveal the date of the coin. Some were sent to a professional processor who cleaned them in huge batches with varying degrees of success. Some fell in the hands of someone who decided the coin could be improved with a little tooling or smoothing. If we ranked each of the steps along the way on a scale of one to ten it would only take six steps to achieve my 'one in a million' figure but my incomplete list above is over twice that so 'one in a million' is waaaaay to optimistic. The perfect coin in every respect would be one in a million million (each step adds a power of ten). It is a miracle that any coin even approaches a '10' level in every regard. My personal 'best' sestertii rarely rank 10/10 in even one of the categories listed (and I guarantee I neglected to mention one or two at least). Mine strive to rate even a 5/10 with more than a few deserving a few 1/10 ranks. I enjoy rare, interesting and attractive coins just like everyone else but I take what I can get and what I can afford. The coin below is an example. It left the mint with pretty good numbers (maybe a few 9's or even 10's???) but things went straight downhill from there. I have seen few enough of these SAECVLO FRVGIFERO TRP COS sestertii that I was happy to find one even this good. I might have found one twice as good given time and money. I predict one twice this good would sell for over 10x what I paid. [ATTACH=full]1196011[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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