The eyebrows of most collectors are ideally raised by the rarity. However, for ancient coins, it becomes something less meaningful. It’s always convenient to witness why a modern coin will be worthy enough, if some were minted. Or some of them remain in existence, provided the huge sum of collectors that would always like to flip a coin in their wide range of modern collections. Hence, the prices will ultimately rise. But since the collection of ancient coins is done diversely, there may not be a possibility to flip the last coin. It is always you, who will decide what to collect and how it can be different from others. In this way, everyone can get more or less, whatever they want.
Of course, there are many incidents that are rare. Many of the coins weren’t minted just because some emperors didn’t live long enough. Hence, these coins will cost much more, and are definitely difficult to find. If you’re trying to get them all which is rarely possible, you shouldn’t concern yourself with the Julian I coin, as an example. Few coins in a workshop of a certain city, might have been struck with reverse designs for that particular emperor. However, everyone unless tries to receive different types from either emperor or the workshop, the coin will not be really expensive. Or, one star is shown on all coins of some type, but one of them displays two.
This will make a modern coin highly priceless, however, an ancient coin would sell at a price similar to the one-star variety, or maybe not, due to its bad condition. There are endless examples of certain lists. Therefore, whilst the ancient coins exist, it would still take a long time for you to learn which of them are rare and why. Finally, you could ask from yourself, whether I need this coin or not. If a majority of people would say no, then ultimately price would be higher. The coin of Nero would finally cost you a very high amount, because of its demand and not a rarity.
The ancient coin sellers would utilize the terms like uncommon, common, rare, scarce, or extremely rare for describing the coin. If someone describes the coin as rare, it doesn’t mean it actually is in the rare category. However, some sellers would still use this label on ancient coins to better attract collectors with less knowledge. Can any person explain why a particular coin is rare? Does it explain the variety? Does that person provide a RIC number to it?
If collecting ancient coins is a newer thing to you, jumping on a coin is not what you should do, only because it is rare and have no familiarity. The most accurate description is ‘scarce’, since, less number of sellers use this in order to attract buyers. Consequently, if you develop a collection, and have knowledge of coins from eBay and catalogs, ultimately you’ll be able to determine whether the coin is rare, uncommon, or scarce. Moreover, the coins that are truly rare (more demand) will definitely sell for much more the $100. Therefore, Constantine’s coin which is described as rare with few bucks of asking price, is highly unlikely to happen. Many sellers on eBay claim their coin to be rare, or their might have only seen a single one in ten years. However, there’s another one similar to it being offered on eBay by another seller.
To conclude, always purchase coins that appeal to you and you find interest in them. None of the same coins of two different types would look similar to each other, therefore, going for the ones that offer the best value for money should be the priority. By looking around, just see if a coin with good looks is affordable or not and whether you really want it. Thus, automatically you’ll keep yourself safe from the regret of buying or the problem of replacement later.
If any of the non-collector or modern coin collector watches your ancient coins, they will be surprised and amazed that you possess antiques. So, they will keep thinking of them as rare or even fake. Not to forget, most of Roman coins aren’t rare.
In order to provide you with an idea, a quote is given through the Handbook of “Roman Imperial Coins” by Van Meter, which states, scholars estimated the mint of Rome was at 400,000 per month denarii between 85-87 AD. However, the production then rose to over a million per month in the next year, which peaked in 92 AD at about 2.5 million per month. Surely, this is far more than what early US coins presented, since, they’re about 150-200 years old.
Of course, many succumbed to the time, but many still remain. Don’t forget, there are fewer ancient coins collectors as compared to modern coins collectors. With the passage of time, as you’ll get more and more coins, some of those coins will be much more scarce than other ones. So you’ll feel satisfied owning them, and those collectors with another interest will not find these coins as worthy, just like you.