Coin Show Report - Few Ancients But Interesting

Today I went to a very small coin show in the gym of an elementary school. Dealers had a lot of space because there were not many of them and only two had ancients. One of these had just bought an estate collection that included about 50 ancients. He said that the deceased assembled his (mostly world) collection in the 1960's through 1990's. I believe this is accurate because I recognized the sort of coins that I recall seeing in the early days of my hobby activity and none of what we see more of today. None were harshly cleaned, zapped or acid dipped.

The collection consisted of decent looking late Romans; common earlier coins were mid grade and rare rulers were all fakes (and not all that deceptive). There was an abused Augustus denarius which might have been real or fake but it was so beat up that it really did not make any difference. The dealer wanted to keep most of the silver and there were only a couple of them I would want so all I bought are bronzes.

I bought 5 coins. This dealer always answers requests for prices with "What do you want to pay?" which starts the back and forth counteroffers. As a result I have to decide how much I paid for each individual coin but I do know the total that the 5 cost. Each of you who likes to play games can decide which of the 5 were winners and which were 'also rans'.

One is a mid grade quadrans (3.61g copper) of Trajan. It is a bit unusual in that it has Trajan's portrait (many quadrantes do not) and extensive legends in very small letters. The reverse is a wolf but there are no twins. Second was a 24g sestertius of Faustina II (as first daughter) with Laetitiae Publicae reverse. It is quite worn and polished which could mean it once served as a pocket piece for a gentleman of days gone by. Third is an AE1 follis of Diocletian which I suspect was one of the last coins added to the collection. A lot of these hit the market in the early 1990's and anyone with any sense bought a couple while they were cheap. This was a variety I did not have and is not terribly flatly struck as are so many of the type. The last two are Rome mint AE3's of Constantine and Licinius. Constantine is in better shape but Licinius has a better style portrait. The dealer said that he had the records of where and for how much each coin was bought. I would like to see that list. Such information might make me feel better about what I had to pay for ordinary coins of a day gone by.