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Author Topic: Republican denarii rarity info?  (Read 1417 times)

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AquilaSPQR

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Republican denarii rarity info?
« on: March 25, 2016, 10:37:04 am »
Is there any catalogue in the internet where I can check rarity of particular republican denarii? I have RIC so I can estimate rarity of imperial coins, but I have no clue about republican ones. I have three of them and I'd like to know if they are rare or not.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Republican denarii rarity info?
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2016, 11:04:43 am »
Andrew McCabe's excellent website has rarity information.  While not a free internet source, Rev. E.A. Sydenham's book Coinage of the Roman Republic (1952) contains rarity ratings that hold-up pretty well 64 years later.

EDIT: You can also use acsearch to search Republican coin types by Crawford number. This will give you a good sense of how many of a given type have come-up for auction over the past 10-15 years, which evidences true market rarity vs. Museum rarity (museums often buy rare coins which can skew rarity ratings in catalogues).

Offline Joe Sermarini

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Re: Republican denarii rarity info?
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2016, 12:24:43 pm »
Forum's catalog includes rarity. Any republican type that we have never had is likely rare.  Use the search.  To include sold coins, change available to all. 

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?action=search
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AquilaSPQR

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Re: Republican denarii rarity info?
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2016, 01:50:47 pm »
Thanks for replies, so I think it's time to get a copy of Sydenham's book somehow.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Republican denarii rarity info?
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2016, 02:10:45 pm »
Thanks for replies, so I think it's time to get a copy of Sydenham's book somehow.

I wouldn't recommend Sydenham as your first or only book on Roman Republican coins.  While it is a useful listing and reasonably good rarity guide, it is long out-of-date with respect to dating of the Republican series.  Perhaps a better choice of book, which I should have mentioned previously, would be the most recent edition of volume 1 of Roman Silver Coins (I think 1978). As its name implies it is limited to silver coins and covers the Republic to Augustus. It contains values which are old but serve as a useful guide to relative rarity of the coins. It is based on Crawford dating, which has been corrected by some recent hoard studies but in general much more correct than Sydenham. Alternatively, if you are also interested in Republican bronzes, you could try Sear, Roman Coins and their Values either the current Volume 1 or the last single volume edition from 1988. Again, these books contain old values which can be used as a relative rarity guide. I hope that helps.

Offline Norbert

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Re: Republican denarii rarity info?
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2016, 02:47:18 pm »
Michael Crawford 'Roman Republican Coinage' has estimations on the number of obverse and reverse dies used for all issues.
And if you are in collection republicans you will want to have this book anyhow.

 

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