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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 5135475, member: 98035&quot;]Very nice coins! I need to get into Flavian bronze - they are quite attractive and decently affordable, even in nicer grades.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as rarities - I own this one, which is apparently RIC 381 without a rarity rating, but it is the only example I have ever seen.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a rare combination of TR P XXXI + IMP VIIII, struck around October/November 177, in the narrow window before his 9th imperial acclamation and the renewal of his tribunician powers for the 32nd time in early December of that year. The fact that it is rare is just icing on the cake - I bought this coin for the portrait only.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1204618[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, where rarity really matters to me is when it is an historically important individual whose portrait is rare on coinage. Some favorites:</p><p><br /></p><p>Quinctilius Varus, the general who lost three entire legions in the Teutoburg Forest; he is only known on coinage from his brief stints as governor of Africa and Asia, and only the African coins bear his portrait</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1204620[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Vedius Pollio, a man mostly remembered for his cruelty to his slaves - specifically for feeding them alive to ravenous eels, which he would later cook and eat. Appears only as governor on a small issue from Tralles in Lydia</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1204619[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This one depicts Lucius Caesar, grandson of Augustus by Julia and Agrippa. After years and years of propaganda depicting Gaius and Lucius as the bright future of Rome, Lucius died of an illness en route to his first military assignment in Hispania. He is not rare on coinage, but he is rare by himself, and especially so with a legible name. This tiny AE from Antioch ad Meandrum is one of only two known, and is by far the finest.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1204621[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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