Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1318602, member: 19463&quot;]I share Martin&#039;s enjoyment of Probus which probably explains why I have three pages on his coins (unfortunately the largest dates to the period when I was compressing photos too much for the benefit of dial up modem owners).&nbsp; However, Probus has some faults.&nbsp; Many of his most interesting and rare coins are enough different from normal that there is little chance of buying one as a sleeper while many of the common ones look special and get sold by ignorant dealers as more special than they are.&nbsp; RIC covering Probus is badly outdated and he will not be included in the upcoming revision of RIC V part 1 (Probus is in part 2).&nbsp; That leaves literature not in English which is more of a problem for some of us than others.&nbsp; Probus dates to the period where coins were silver washed and many high grade examples are ugly because of the pattern of their partial silvering.&nbsp; Some of us can ignore this better than others.&nbsp; Probus is not well recorded in history so we don&#039;t have vast opportunities to study his reign.&nbsp; I&#039;m sure he was an interesting guy but details are sketchy. </p><p><br /></p><p>What I do like is that Probus seems never to have worn the same suit (of armor) twice.&nbsp; The variations in his portraiture are many.&nbsp; He struck from many mints but relatively few of them had any originality in their choice of types so your collection ends up being a comparison of the same thing interpreted several ways.&nbsp; That can be good or bad considering your outlook on it.&nbsp; His coins include the two coded series that I consider cool but I suspect half the owners of them neither know nor care why the extra leters are on their coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Today, I consider Probus relatively overpriced but that is because there were large hoards of his disbursed about 15 years ago so most of my coins were cheaper and made me have trouble with the prices most dealers ask for lesser coins today.&nbsp; I believe that goes back to my basic preference for silver coins (Severans) over silver washed coins including Probus.&nbsp; There is no doubt he makes a great collecting specialty.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html</a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html</a></a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html</a></a></a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" rel="nofollow"><br /></a></a></a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" rel="nofollow">[ATTACH]149407.vB[/ATTACH]</a></a></a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" rel="nofollow"><br /></a></a></a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/equiti.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac19.html" rel="nofollow">A</a>r</a>e</a> you cut out to collect Probus?&nbsp; I show a coin of Serdica that some will say is just like the one Martin showed.&nbsp; If you see the two coins as too much the same to want both, you probably will not be a Probus collector.&nbsp; If you are amazed at how different they are is so very many ways, you might want to consider a Probus collection specialty.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in