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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2910016, member: 19463&quot;]This post is intended to be of some value/interest to beginners even though neither of the coins discussed are something I would expect to be a popular choice as one of your first ancients.&nbsp; The postman brought me two packages each containing one coin in some ways very much like and in other ways quite different. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]702423[/ATTACH]</p><p>The first is the one and only coin I won in last week&#039;s CNG electronic sale (409 lot 726).&nbsp; It was listed as having sold previously in CNG sale 204 as lot 182.&nbsp; At both sales it was estimated at $150 but in 2009 it brought $192 while I won it at $130 in 2017.&nbsp; I suspect that the 2009 sale which had a large number of coins of Carausius attracted more specialists while the one last week had a more general audience that saw the coin&#039;s faults rather than its good features.&nbsp;&nbsp; Carausius was a British breakaway ruler in the time of Diocletian.&nbsp; His coins might be termed &#039;sort of&#039; Roman but many of his fans are interested because of his being British.&nbsp; This coin is unusual for its mintmark denoting the &#039;C&#039; mint which has been attributed to more than one English town starting with C.&nbsp; Relatively fewer C mint coins used the XXI alloy mark than did the London mint so a specialist might want this coin where the rest of us would hold the reverse centering against it.&nbsp; The coin is the most common reverse used by Carausius (Pax) so I was more impressed by the clear mintmark and excellent portrait than turned off by the poor reverse.&nbsp; The point to note here is not everyone is looking for the same thing in a coin.&nbsp; Some would want this coin for the portrait and Carausius coins often have terrible portraits.&nbsp; Some (few) would want it for the scarce mintmark and some would not want it at all because of the faulty reverse centering.&nbsp; The two CNG sales seem to have attracted different groups of Carausius collectors.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]702425[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The second coin is like the first in being an issue of a secessionist ruler - here the Gallic Empire founder Postumus.&nbsp; Coins of Postumus are many times more common than those of Carausius and available in excellent condition for much lower prices than the average Carausius.&nbsp; I have several coins of Postumus that are much better looking than this one which was very fairly priced by a VCoin dealer you may know (Victor of CT) at 1/5 the CNG price.&nbsp; Big dealers usually get more than smaller dealers but I wanted this one for the reverse.&nbsp; Minerva Fautrix (she who gives favor) is a typ unique to Postumus.&nbsp; It is far from the most rare type of Postumus but one I did not have and wanted.&nbsp; The coin suffers from flat striking losing detail on both sides.&nbsp; While billon with a decent amount of silver, the tone is gray and lacking in sharp contrast.&nbsp; I like the coin but one of you quite possibly has a nicer one. </p><p><br /></p><p>For a beginning collector, I consider neither coin to be a great choice.&nbsp; You could get a more common mintmark with a Pax Carausius for the same price.&nbsp; You could get a more common reverse Postumus with more eye appeal for the price.&nbsp; For those of us not limiting our holdings to one coin per ruler, each of these is a reasonably desirable selection.&nbsp; That is the way our hobby works.&nbsp; What do we learn here?&nbsp; Buy from good dealers and find coins that fit your style and interests.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Who has that better Minerva Postumus or other special Carausius mintmark variations? Show, please.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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