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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 7896440, member: 82322&quot;]I have also noticed that denarii listed by sellers in Ukraine are very worn.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why?</p><p><br /></p><p>It is likely that the coins circulated in that region for a very long time.&nbsp; In a place like Rome with large scale minting capacity it was easier to melt and re-mint coins.&nbsp; Without that capacity -- and will to melt and recoin -- existing coins keep circulating until they grade falls below &quot;good&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even in modern times coins circulate until they are very worn.&nbsp; My grandfather brought back a few rolls of pennies from England, pulled out of circulation in 1960.&nbsp; Most were miserable.&nbsp; The UK re-minted everything in the 1970s.&nbsp; I never see English pennies at coin shows as bad as what he pulled out of circulation.&nbsp; Most of the bad ones were not saved and became scrap.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was also unofficial minting going on in Ukraine.&nbsp; At local workshops it is likely the relief wasn&#039;t as high and the silver wasn&#039;t as hard.&nbsp; It isn&#039;t clear how much of recent finds are contemporary counterfeits.&nbsp; Some examples have bogus inscriptions, so we can be sure they are local issues:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1363490[/ATTACH] </p><p>Obv: ???ИIИ? ??IMAYVGIIIG; Marcus Aurelius</p><p>Rev: V??V??? IIV V...; “Concordia” seated, holding ”caduceus“ (?) and scepter (with ribbons?)</p><p>cf. <a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1" rel="nofollow">RIC 1</a>, cf. <a href="http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru/" rel="nofollow">http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>If you look at the wares of Ukrainian sellers you will see unknown reverse types.&nbsp; Those are certainly &quot;barbaric.&quot;&nbsp; Scholars will also encounter denarii with perfect inscriptions but the same low-quality nose engraving on the portrait as the blundered inscription examples.&nbsp; These are usually counted as official -- but I doubt it.</p><p><br /></p><p>The only catalog I&#039;ve found that covers barbaric issues is <i>Barbarian coins on the territory between the Balkans and Central Asia: catalog of Andrei Sergeev&#039;s collection at the State Historical Museum</i>.&nbsp; It&#039;s in English.&nbsp; It is hard to find in the US.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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