8/8/2023 0 Comments Rare ancient roman coins![]() ![]() It appears that modern US coins are so short of different interesting types to collect that collectors keep inventing new, and virtually meaningless, varieties so they can have something to care about. Some US collectors even care about nearly invisible differences, such as doubled dies, small versus large letters, and tilted numerals. It is the perception of a series that defines types, and the rarity of subtypes within types does not have much affect on prices. As "types" become defined ever more finely, there comes a point when many coins are very rare "types," but demand is equally rare! When "types" of early American coins did not include die varieties, die varieties hardly mattered. When "types" evolved to include dates but not mintmarks, rarer mints hardly mattered. A hundred years ago when collectors were few and most of them wanted one of each design, rarer dates hardly mattered. The history of US coin pricing shows that many "rare" and expensive "types" did not even exist decades ago. Then the rarer ones are in relatively high demand, which naturally drives up the price.ġ) The perception of a limited "series" defines the types.ģ) If (and only if) there is enough demand for coins in that series, the rarer ones develop premium prices. These collectors want (or "need") one of each in the series. Therefore, collecting ancient coins is not at all like collecting a popular series (e.g Morgan dollars or Lincoln cents) where the number of types is so limited that you can hope to get them all, or almost all, and you are competing with many other collectors. First you need to know that there are on the order of 100,000 different common ancient coin types, and many more scarcer varieties. Collectors of US coins tend to relate rarity and value so strongly that they think a "rare" ancient coin ought to be worth more, maybe much more, than its common counterpart. "Rare," "scarce," "unlisted," "unpublished," - words that make a collector's heart beat faster. (Information of special importance to eBay buyers) Rarity and the value of ancient Roman coins ![]()
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