Rating

The RIC numbers do need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt, like said earlier they are perhaps useful for relative rarity to other coins in the same book but thats about it. I would suspect R4s and R5s sell daily on ebay for just a few pounds as nobody is looking for these minisculey different common issue coins. It is also important to understand if it is the coin that is rare or the issue, a coin population made up of 1000s of slightly different 'rare' issues will be less desirable than a common coin that only came in one issue. Hope that makes sense.

I have 3 RIC VII R4s '2-3 coins known' I bought all 3 for a total price of £14.95, and that included P+P! I had no idea when I bought them that they were R4s I just needed / liked them. If I tried to sell them tomorrow I'd prob get the same £15 back.

Wow! Thanks for all the help guys!

jwharper: Yes that does look like the coins I own. Except, the "Z" on the coin you posted appears to be backwards? None of mine are like that. Can you please tell me, or provide a link to other coins like the ones in question that are for sale? Thanks!

Also, to address why I started collecting this coin. And why as a new collector I own 7 of the same "rare coin". My Ancient coin collection is made up of mostly "rare" or valuable coins only. I don't have any real theme other than that at this time. I do think the coins are cool and remarkable considering the age. But my only theme so far has been "rare" or highly collectable coins. Weather that be Hadrian, Licinius, or others..

When I first came across this coin I didn't have a lot of time to research and back up the claims of the person selling the coin.. ( ebay auction) I did a couple of quick searches on Vcoins and ebay. I only found a few. I thought to myself that it would be a cool little collection if I could collect all of the 7-10 known to exist. So I bought it. Then over a few more months I bought the others I could find. Total investment = 500 bucks. Price range was 17.00 to 150.00.

Keep in mind that until today I thought the info of RIC VII R2 = 7-10 was at least close to accurate. And that collectors believed and went by that rating system. I knew there was a chance that over the last 45 years more coins just like this one would be found. Or that in the future there could be more found. That's part of the gamble I took.

I know many who read this story may think that collecting coins in this fashion is just down right crazy! But hey, I'm coincrazyy

It looks as though my inexperience has cost me 500 bucks that I may never get back!

I'm not all that upset. They are still cool coins that I'm happy to own.

As JW says reading the threads on here is a good way to build up knowledge and the only stupid question is one not asked. Everybody starts at the beginning knowledge wise and its not something to be ashamed of and shouldn't be mocked by those 'in the know'.




I like your attitude - for people who have collected modern US coins switching to ancients can be a shock. Many of the 'rules' completely change and the main-stays of tight grading, known populations and price estimates go straight out of the window.

Its good fun though - join us on the 'dark side' where 'slab' is a dirty word, your allowed to touch your coins, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and your coin is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it on any given day.




Most sellers on ebay who use terms such as 'rare' and head items like this '*****RARE-WOW*****' should generally be left alone - they dont know what they are doing and most reputable sellers go no further than to sometimes use terms such as 'scarce' or 'un-common'.

In truth there are very few truly rare Ancient coins and most of these were bought up by museums long before any of us were born. Welcome to a fascinating new hobby.

Thanks again for the help and opinions guys. I wish I could post pictures of the coins. As I said in another post, I haven't bought a camera to take good pictures of my coins. I did find a link to one of the nicer coins I bought in that collection though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...370281551969


So JW, did you find anymore like these for sale?

Are you only interested in ones with palm leaves on the left and 'z's on the right?

I think this one might be - difficult to see whats in right field:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bronze-foll...t_852wt_1344

BTW - the coin in your link, the one in your collection is good quality, coins like this and with good silvering will always demand higher prices.

Thanks Bobby! The one you found on ebay is a tough call.

I did buy the other one though! That makes out of ?