On their own they look okay but when you put them side by side something isn't right. As you say all known examples are in excellent condition and with only 3-4 examples you would think they would be die matched. It just doesn't sit well with me. What did it sell for?
It sold far too
cheap, 7k, when one might have expected 20-50k for the sole example of such a
rarity in the current market.
Phil
Davis advised me of a third example:
Hamburger 96, 1932, lot 514 = M&M XIX, 1959, lot 165, which he described as "not particularly persuasive" and coming from a third die pair. There is not a fourth example. There are just these three. My experience of really
rare coins is that once they become recognisable from some verifiable nice examples, then
poor condition examples begin to come out of the cupboards and into sale rooms, and this is a particularly easy
type to recognise. Bear in mind that 90% of
legionary denarii are in the typical
Fair to
Fine condition. So there should have been 10 or 20 of these in worn condition for every one in
GVF. Legionaries are perhaps the one
type of RR silver that are not discarded when in low condition, so the worn examples would not have been thrown or melted.
This is why the
type remains uncertain. 3 examples, 3 die-pairs, none worn, and of completely different styles and design details too... It would be as if someone offered a 1916 D dime with the
mintmark in a different place. That's what 'different dies, and different design details' implies.