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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lrbguy, post: 2810012, member: 88829&quot;]Help me out here, please.&nbsp; I just lost out as underbidder on an antoninianus of Salonina which the auction house had trumpeted as &quot;Not in RIC.&quot;&nbsp; Against better judgment (I think) I had bid just under 220GBP, the hammer price, though I suspect that the buyer was prepared to go MUCH higher.&nbsp; But why?&nbsp; Let me explain.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin is not in RIC.&nbsp; That is true, but before RIC it was listed by Cohen and so is listed in RSC, but left unpriced.&nbsp; What this usually means is that the variety in question was considered suspect by the editors of RIC and excluded (not merely omitted) and Seaby/RSC followed their lead by declining to give it a valuation.&nbsp; In most cases where this happens it means the coin is an ancient unofficial hybrid, for which the source of the reverse element was ambiguous.&nbsp; Where it can be identified the hybrid element is attributed, but the coin is not listed alongside the bonafide issues.&nbsp; Footnotes and separate listings might be done, but exclusion from the catalog was also common practice.&nbsp; In all things such a coin is not regarded the same as normal catalog entries.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back when the printed resources were the only references available, hybrids were given very little credence and were practically giveaways.&nbsp; Today however, the resources for attribution online do not make it easy or clear for getting the goods on hybrids.&nbsp; Worse yet, it seems to me that when auction houses list such items and do not point out their status as hybrids, but trumpet the fact that RIC does not list one or another, they are taking unfair advantage of collectors who do not know about this side of the story.&nbsp; Moreover, it now seems there are collectors coming on the scene specifically seeking hybrids as if they are new entries for the next revision of RIC or whatever is to serve as the principle standard reference.&nbsp; Are they speculating on a turn in the marketplace?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Can someone closer to the action set me straight on all this?&nbsp; Is there a new status evolving for the hybrids RIC would not list?&nbsp; What new research is the basis for that kind of change?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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