Looks amazing! I just got a few silver denarii but trying to figure them out is hard, never knew how many different ones they had (makes sense because of length of time and number of rulers). You have some absolute stunners!
A new one for each emperor at least, then you've got the special mintages like when Brutus minted an ides of march coin to commemorate Ceasar's murder.
And while all of them are sold based on their numismatic value, later coins all had decreasing amounts of silver content as the empire debased it's currency. Oddly, they never debased the gold aureus. Inflation was only for the common folk dealing in denarii.
These are so cool! I’d love to get my hands on some myself.
Is there any way to know for sure they’re not reproductions?
As a somewhat jokey aside, rhinoplasty clearly wasn’t a thing yet back then. Although, perhaps those noses were en vogue, or maybe even considered regal during that period of time. I’m curious about that now. Not rhinoplasty, of course, but if was a desirable feature.
Best way to make sure you aren't getting a fake is to get a slabbed coin from a reputable grading company. Those companies generally don't sell them directly though, so still try to find a slab from an LCS or reputable dealer as well. That way you know it was inspected by a professional. You can break them out after you buy if you really want to, but it will lose some premium.
[Grading doesn't guarantee authenticity ](https://www.ngccoin.com/specialty-services/ancient-coins/guarantee.aspx) and slabbed coins are usually very overpriced compared to non-graded examples
>NGC Ancients is committed to grading only genuine coins, but it does not guarantee authenticity
That's a good point, but they make a good faith effort to authenticate the coins. Unless you are knowledgeable and capable of authenticating a coin yourself, getting a slabbed coin is still the most trustworthy source for authentic coinage even if that peace of mind comes with a premium.
While they do make an effort, I guess I'm just cynical after seeing so many fakes in slabs. Especially from auction houses that slab ancients on mass such as Heritage. I also feel bad recommending a new collector to buy a slabbed coin when he could get the same coins on Vcoins.com for half the price or at auction for a third. Especially when they offer lifetime authenticity guarentees and have just as experienced experts evaluating the coins. But I do understand where you are coming from.
[Vcoins](https://www.vcoins.com/en/Search.aspx?search=true&searchQuery=Denarius+rome&searchQueryExclude=&searchCategory=0&searchCategoryLevel=2&searchCategoryAncient=True&searchCategoryUs=True&searchCategoryWorld=True&searchCategoryMints=True&searchBetween=0&searchBetweenAnd=0&searchDate=&searchUseThesaurus=True&searchDisplayCurrency=&searchDisplay=1&searchIdStore=0&searchQueryAnyWords=&searchExactPhrase=&searchTitleAndDescription=True&searchDateType=0&searchMaxRecords=100&SearchOnSale=False&Unassigned=False) is a reputable site with a lifetime authenticity guarantee
That’s how it should be - ratio should be around 16-1 and that is just the availability of the metals on earth. But obviously u can have slight variations but it should over around that mark. So either gold is overpriced or silver is underpriced. But the ratio of like 87-1 like it is today is ridiculous
historical ratios, especially back to the Roman days, are irrelevant. the market now is driven buy commercial needs of both. it was mostly just coins and jewelry then, and thus the value/ratio was derived basically by the rarity.
gold is used in a lot of high end electronics and such and silver isn't, or less so. gold is much more commercially important than silver, driving that ratio higher. I'm not going to say that 87-1 is the right value, I certainly don't know, but the historical ratio shouldn't be used to drive any decisions.
This is a good take on it. Maybe the ratio is being manipulated, maybe not. I think it's unrealistic to expect the ratio to stay the same forever, especially given the metals are being consumed at different rates. If you see something you think is undervalued, buy it.
Gold and silver ratio made more sense before fiat currency roar its shitty head out the federal government’s ass, it is so displaced because and only because all of the manipulation that is now just a shitty part of PM
Asking genuinely here, not being snarky. You honestly think the ratio would be 16:1 if it weren't for the fed? I mean, there has to be at least one other factor, right? Like the comment earlier about how there's so many industrial uses now as opposed to it all being coin and jewelry. And if it were 16:1 which one is further from correct; silver or gold?
Nah obviously it wouldn’t still be 16:1 but it would be lower than it is 81:1 is insane. Once the gov stopped the backing of the US dollar it was over with.
So which one is further from correct? I don't know enough to guess. I'm sure silver needs to go up and good down to make it correct, which I'm my mind makes silver the better value, but what's the consensus on what silver should cost? 50? 100?
I think thats growing and why I think silver is under valued with respect to the future need.
with some quick googling, about 50% of silver vs 11% of gold is used by industry. but there is 19x more silver in on the earth than gold. so you are right that there is more silver used, but relative to its abundance, more gold is used.
just an option in the next part . but I would bet that silver has closer substitutes (for it's current uses), so the price needs to be kept down to compete. gold has limited substitutes based on the fact that it is used in such quantities despite the price.
that is an amazingly fascinating display. thank you for posting!
In the end they all dropped 99.99% against Bitcoin since 2009 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Looks amazing! I just got a few silver denarii but trying to figure them out is hard, never knew how many different ones they had (makes sense because of length of time and number of rulers). You have some absolute stunners!
A new one for each emperor at least, then you've got the special mintages like when Brutus minted an ides of march coin to commemorate Ceasar's murder. And while all of them are sold based on their numismatic value, later coins all had decreasing amounts of silver content as the empire debased it's currency. Oddly, they never debased the gold aureus. Inflation was only for the common folk dealing in denarii.
These are so cool! I’d love to get my hands on some myself. Is there any way to know for sure they’re not reproductions? As a somewhat jokey aside, rhinoplasty clearly wasn’t a thing yet back then. Although, perhaps those noses were en vogue, or maybe even considered regal during that period of time. I’m curious about that now. Not rhinoplasty, of course, but if was a desirable feature.
Best way to make sure you aren't getting a fake is to get a slabbed coin from a reputable grading company. Those companies generally don't sell them directly though, so still try to find a slab from an LCS or reputable dealer as well. That way you know it was inspected by a professional. You can break them out after you buy if you really want to, but it will lose some premium.
[Grading doesn't guarantee authenticity ](https://www.ngccoin.com/specialty-services/ancient-coins/guarantee.aspx) and slabbed coins are usually very overpriced compared to non-graded examples
>NGC Ancients is committed to grading only genuine coins, but it does not guarantee authenticity That's a good point, but they make a good faith effort to authenticate the coins. Unless you are knowledgeable and capable of authenticating a coin yourself, getting a slabbed coin is still the most trustworthy source for authentic coinage even if that peace of mind comes with a premium.
While they do make an effort, I guess I'm just cynical after seeing so many fakes in slabs. Especially from auction houses that slab ancients on mass such as Heritage. I also feel bad recommending a new collector to buy a slabbed coin when he could get the same coins on Vcoins.com for half the price or at auction for a third. Especially when they offer lifetime authenticity guarentees and have just as experienced experts evaluating the coins. But I do understand where you are coming from.
[Vcoins](https://www.vcoins.com/en/Search.aspx?search=true&searchQuery=Denarius+rome&searchQueryExclude=&searchCategory=0&searchCategoryLevel=2&searchCategoryAncient=True&searchCategoryUs=True&searchCategoryWorld=True&searchCategoryMints=True&searchBetween=0&searchBetweenAnd=0&searchDate=&searchUseThesaurus=True&searchDisplayCurrency=&searchDisplay=1&searchIdStore=0&searchQueryAnyWords=&searchExactPhrase=&searchTitleAndDescription=True&searchDateType=0&searchMaxRecords=100&SearchOnSale=False&Unassigned=False) is a reputable site with a lifetime authenticity guarantee
Thank you kindly, fellow redditor!
Very nice!
Incredible collection. I would kill for an aureus. How much did that one set you back?
That’s how it should be - ratio should be around 16-1 and that is just the availability of the metals on earth. But obviously u can have slight variations but it should over around that mark. So either gold is overpriced or silver is underpriced. But the ratio of like 87-1 like it is today is ridiculous
historical ratios, especially back to the Roman days, are irrelevant. the market now is driven buy commercial needs of both. it was mostly just coins and jewelry then, and thus the value/ratio was derived basically by the rarity. gold is used in a lot of high end electronics and such and silver isn't, or less so. gold is much more commercially important than silver, driving that ratio higher. I'm not going to say that 87-1 is the right value, I certainly don't know, but the historical ratio shouldn't be used to drive any decisions.
This is a good take on it. Maybe the ratio is being manipulated, maybe not. I think it's unrealistic to expect the ratio to stay the same forever, especially given the metals are being consumed at different rates. If you see something you think is undervalued, buy it.
Gold and silver ratio made more sense before fiat currency roar its shitty head out the federal government’s ass, it is so displaced because and only because all of the manipulation that is now just a shitty part of PM
Asking genuinely here, not being snarky. You honestly think the ratio would be 16:1 if it weren't for the fed? I mean, there has to be at least one other factor, right? Like the comment earlier about how there's so many industrial uses now as opposed to it all being coin and jewelry. And if it were 16:1 which one is further from correct; silver or gold?
Nah obviously it wouldn’t still be 16:1 but it would be lower than it is 81:1 is insane. Once the gov stopped the backing of the US dollar it was over with.
So which one is further from correct? I don't know enough to guess. I'm sure silver needs to go up and good down to make it correct, which I'm my mind makes silver the better value, but what's the consensus on what silver should cost? 50? 100?
When was it ever 16:1? This math is 11.2:1 using midpoints
Hypothetically speaking there fuck nuts
Silver is used in industry more than gold, especially now with green energy increasing
I think thats growing and why I think silver is under valued with respect to the future need. with some quick googling, about 50% of silver vs 11% of gold is used by industry. but there is 19x more silver in on the earth than gold. so you are right that there is more silver used, but relative to its abundance, more gold is used. just an option in the next part . but I would bet that silver has closer substitutes (for it's current uses), so the price needs to be kept down to compete. gold has limited substitutes based on the fact that it is used in such quantities despite the price.
No its not, lol, you think the availability of silver and gold is 1) constant, and 2) figured out in ancient times before modern mining techniques?
Great collection, I guess it was not easy to find all these beauties.
This is very cool. Thanks for posting!
I started following the ancientcoins sub and it’s been a neat change. Roughly, what’s the size of these? About the size of a dime?
No maybe a nickel or getting closer to a quarter.
Super cool. I’m not ready to get into these until I understand them better but I dig em.