Severus Alexander 222-235 Ad AR Denarius

Yes...It´s RIC 81!!

Thanks malamute. It amazes me how dealers that specialize in this field make so many errors in their descriptions.

With the crude minting techniques used to strike these coins, how do you come up with a grade on the coin? Easy on modern coins not so in this field for me. Any guess on the grade of this coin as the dealer didn't list one.

Thanks Gil, much appreciated and I now have this book marked.

Thanks to you guys it is becoming easier for me to ID these coins.

I hope you looked over my grading pages as suggested by Gil but I'll summarize here. Lets pretend someone graded this coin VF. What words (few or a paragraph) would you feel compelled to add to be perfectly fair to both the seller and buyer? I see a large, ragged flan with minor flatness at reverse top where it is slightly bothersome and obverse bottom where it is not. I see a nice portrait. Some people would prefer a coin with a smoother edge while others would prefer this one with so much extra metal outside the doted border. My pages suggest things you might want to say after you say VF. I'd grade this Nice VF on large, ragged flan. You?

Why do dealers make so many mistakes? IMHO the biggest reason is too many people try to invent a catalog number without looking in the catalog. They will see a coin somewhat similar in another sale or grab an RIC number from the bottom of a Sear listing. Without understanding what differences separate one RIC number from another it is easy to introduce errors. I wish there were a law against quoting RIC numbers without having touched an RIC book. Second answer: Those who don't know and don't care rarely do anything admirable. Question: Do you care? If the coin is right and shown in a fair photo so you can ID it yourself, why care if the dealer provided a number (right or wrong). If catalog numbers mean a lot to you, you should look them up yourself. It is quite possible to collect coins without ever knowing what the catalog listing might be.