One of the things that always impresses me about the
Forum community is the amazing and truly
rare coins that we have in our
collections. I thought I would make this
thread a place where we can share with each other our rarest coins and discuss what we know about them, why they are so
rare, how we aquired them, the number of other examples we have seen, etc.
My rarest coin has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, there does not seem to be much information as to why it is so
rare. It belongs to a small issue of 4
types in two
denominations for the emperor
Hadrian, all in
orichalcum. The two sizes are roughly
semis size (19-22 mm), & a small module As size (23-25mm), and the
types are
Roma w/Victory,
Lyre,
Tyche of Antioch, &
Griffin. They have been attributed to different mints throught the years, but the consensus now seems to be either minted in the east (most likely Antioch) or minted in
Rome for use in the east, as they have an unmistakable classic
Roman style, several with eastern leaning
themes. Their find spots are typically in the east as well.
While all of these coins are
rare, the
Griffin reverse seems to be far more
rare than the other three. The
Lyre &
Roma types seems to be the most prevalent, over the years I've seen probably 25 or so of each on the market. The Tyche seems to be scarcer, I have seen probably 10 or so on the market. The
Griffin type though seems to be very, very
rare. In more than 15 years of active collecting the only one I have ever seen come up for sale is mine. I have seen a pic of only one other example in a private
collection, and two pictures of other examples in reference works.
A few years ago, I took this coin to [Dealer Name removed by ADMIN] excellent Ancients show in
San Francisco. Every dealer was impressed said that it was the first example they
had ever seen, except for the great Frank Kovaks, and he has seen and forgotten more coins than any of the rest of us could probably ever
hope for. I think about this coin and it's associated
types alot, and I feel that there are
still answers to be
had about their exact function and how they relate to the
standard coinage for the reign. My pet theory of course is that they are somehow related to Hadrians' eastern travels, possibly given out as gifts to the populace when the emperor and
his massive entourage rolled into town.
What truly
rare coins do you have in your
collection? What do you know about them? I would like to see what other mysterious gems we have hiding in our
Forum collections.................