A Fleeting Accomplishment - The Twelve Caesars (10 In Silver)

Like a brief family reunion at the holidays. Nice accomplishment, Steve.

If your making a bit of profit and saving it for coins you don't have to sell later, that I can understand.

If your using the profit to pay for essentials, stop eating and sleep outside

Thanks all!

I just sold the first three coins; the remainder are in my collection.

Julius Caesar - Bought in a lot of 6 denarii for €350; sold that coin for $190

Augustus - Bought in a lot of 5 coins for €425, sold that coin for $25 (IMO it went really cheap!)

Tiberius - Bought with the Augustus; sold for $150

Caligula - ebay purchase for about $35

Claudius - ebay purchase in a lot, $45 for the lot (but the rest were junk)

Nero - ebay purchase for about $150

Galba - Bought with Augustus & Tiberius; sold a lower grade and uglier example for $140

Otho - Bought with Augustus, Tiberius, & Galba

Vitellius - ebay purchase for about $170

Vespasian - Vcoins purchase for $40 (it has metal issues on the reverse)

Titus - I think about $90 on ebay? (Upgraded from a $40 coin as caesar)

Domitian - I think about $60 on ebay

The set is available as none of the emperors are uber-rare, and people like to buy and sell quickly. Most major auction houses have all 12 in each auction, or at least 9-10 of them.

The kicker is that Julius Caesar's portrait denarii are crazy expensive (talking $2,000+ for a pleasing coin with some problems!) and Caligula is nearly impossible to get in decent grades for reasonable prices on account of much of his coinage being destroyed. Otho only ruled 3 months, and is the classic rarity of the set, although his prices seem to be going down.

To complete a 12 Caesars set, you are probably looking at:

Any type, any condition: $300-800
Any type, acceptable to kind of pleasing: $700-$1,500 (where I'm at currently)
Any type, high grades: $3,000+
All denarii, medium to high grades: $5,000+

Museums and millionaires like to try to assemble the 12 Caesars in gold, which will set you back as much as a small house.

The cheapest I ever saw was one poor sap who sold his collection of lowball 12 Caesars for just $300 on ebay.

Added: it was not easy to break up the set; especially to sell the only Caesar I've ever owned, or to keep my little bronze Tiberius. This was me for about two hours before the sale:

No, that's when the wife asks if I'm ever going to get around to selling off my Indo Sassanians so they fit in one binder again

I think Finn235 is being quite modest about the accomplishment !
I did a quick eyeball scan of the family portrait and would expect to pay a minimum of 2 thousand for such a grouping.
Of course I have been unable to even come close to a set (43 years and counting !) since I shy away from the silver.
While I can say I have owned Vespasian Titus and Domitian denarii the rest have not ever found a home in my cabinet.

My personal 'missing link' is an Antioch bronze of Otho.

Someday ........
Over the rainbow

I wonder if I'll ever make it to a full 12... I'm currently only up to 2 (though one* of those 2 is Caligula, so at least I won't have to look for that one).

Galba, Vitellius, and of course Julius Caesar will be tricky and/or expensive. Otho will probably be tricky and expensive because of his relative lack of copper.


*) actually, I have two examples of what references say is the same type, except one of my examples is roughly twice as heavy as the other... should post those two coins on CCF eventually, I did some photos but had apparently misplaced them

@Finn235, those prices are not that crazy at all. Think of what it would take to assemble a high grade set of Morgan dollars.