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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 3114868, member: 56859&quot;]<b>Excellent</b> educational post and great coin, [USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER]!&nbsp; I&#039;ve also observed that you can find some fantastic slabbed coins &quot;cheaply&quot; by scrutinizing the ones not graced with the magic letters of AU or MS.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a good example:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/frugi-mercury-cr418-2b-rted-jpg.505197/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>ROMAN REPUBLIC, M. Piso M.f. Frugi</b></p><p>58 BCE (redated from Crawford&#039;s 61 BCE by Hersh and Walker, 1984)</p><p>AR denarius, 20 mm, 3.94 gm</p><p>Obv: terminal bust of Mercury right, wearing winged diadem; calix below chin; to left, star above wreath; dotted border</p><p>Rev: M·PISO·M·F / FRVGI above secespita (sacrificial knife) and patera; all within laurel wreath</p><p>Ref: Crawford 418/2b; Sydenham 825; Calpurnia 23</p><p><i>formerly slabbed, NGC XF, 4/5 strike, 4/5 surface</i></p><p><br /></p><p>I generally don&#039;t like to post what I pay for coins (if you have to know, you can make the effort to look them up) but because of the nature of this post I will say-- $302.50 including BP; May 2016.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is not a common coin.&nbsp; There are <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=frugi+denarius+mercury+bust&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=1&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=frugi+denarius+mercury+bust&amp;category=1-2&amp;en=1&amp;de=1&amp;fr=1&amp;it=1&amp;es=1&amp;ot=1&amp;images=1&amp;thesaurus=1&amp;order=1&amp;currency=usd&amp;company=" rel="nofollow">20 in ACsearch</a> (between 2003 and now) and I didn&#039;t check to see if some were duplicates.&nbsp; Grades are ~VF to EF.&nbsp; Mine has better centering than many and abundant eye appeal.&nbsp;&nbsp; Here the three most recent examples sold:</p><p><br /></p><p>$1123 + BP, 2017</p><p><img src="https://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/83/3829/3887160.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>$1300 + BP, 2017</p><p><img src="https://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/30/3716/3773854.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>$1414 + BP, 2016</p><p><img src="https://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/83/3008/3108982.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>So... perhaps the existence of ancient coin slabs isn&#039;t an <i>entirely</i> bad thing (yet)?&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Edited to add that while I made out like a bandit on this coin, I&#039;ve certainly paid a hefty premium for many coins.&nbsp; I have no delusions of thriftiness <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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