Scarcity and Rarity

Rarity ratings in sales catalogs, including FORVM ANCIENT COINS's catalog, are based some or all of the following:

- Published rarity ratings when available (such as those in Roman Imperial Coins below).
- The number of examples in published collections and other references.
- The number of examples sold in auctions over the past years.
- The number of examples currently on the market.
- The number of examples on the internet websites.
- The number of examples handled by the dealer in the past.
- The knowledge and experience of the cataloger.

An exact degree of scarcity and rarity of ancient coins is rarely certain. Also, the rarity of a type can change if a hoard is discovered. Often coins that were once listed as rare in references are only cataloged as scarce and coins that were once scarce are now cataloged as common today. Although unusual, a cataloger may also believe a coin is rarer than a published rarity rating or the number of examples in collections implies. Highly desireable coins are found in disproportionatly high numbers in publications and collections because they were sought out for the collections with greater effort than other coins. Such coins may actually be quite rare.

Another rarity consideration is how narrowly the type or variety is defined. A particular coin of a short reigning emperor may be listed as common but overall the coins of that emperor are much rarer than those of Constantine, who issued millions of coins. Yet, many Constantine varients are identified as rare or even extremely rare. A rarity rating might apply to the general type or to a narrowly defined variety. Rarity might even refer to a specific mint workshop (officina) or control mark on the coin. The same issue applies to Greek coins. The coins of a city in general might be common but the coins of a specific magistrate might be unpublished and thus considered rare. The reason rarity is sometimes based on an obsure magistrate name, officina number or control mark is that some collectors are interested in obtaining all of the varients of the type.

RIC Rarity Ratings

RIC I (1984)
C: Common to very common
S: Scarce
R: Rare
R2: [Rare] 11-15 known [in the collections examined]
R3: [Rare] 6 to 10 known [in the collections examined]
R4: [Rare] 2 to 5 known [in the collections examined]
R5: [Rare] Unique [in the collections examined]

RIC II (late 1920's)
Unspecified, probably the same as RIC I

RIC III (1930)
Unspecified, probably the same as RIC I

RIC IV (1934)
Unspecified, probably the same as RIC I

RIC V (1927/1933)
CC: Very common
C: Common
S: Scarce
R: Rare
R2-R4: [Rare] Additional degrees of rarity
R5: Unique [only one in the collections examined]

RIC VI (1967)
C2: [Very] Common in every major collection
C: [Common] In every major collection
S: [Scarce] In most major collections
R: [Rare] 26-50 coins known [in the collections examined]
R2: [Rare] 11-25 coins known [in the collections examined]
R3: [Rare] 6-10 coins known [in the collections examined]
R4: [Very Rare] 2-5 coins known [in the collections examined]
R5: Unique [only one in the collections examined]

RIC VII (1966)
C3: [Common] more than 41 coins known
C2: [Common] 31-40 coins known
C1: [Common] 22-30 coins known
S: [Scarce] 16-21 coins known
R1: [Rare] 11-15 coins known
R2: [Rare] 7-10 coins known
R3: [Rare] 4-6 coins known
R4: [Very Rare] 2-3 coins known
R5: Unique [only one in the collections examined]

RIC |VIII| (1981)
Unspecified, probably similar to RIC VI or VII

RIC IX (1933)
C-C3: [Common with] increasing degrees of commonness
S: Scarce
R-R4: [Rare with] increasing degrees of rarity
R5: Unique [only one in the collections examined]

RIC X (1994)
Unspecified, probably similar to RIC VI or VII

Notes:
- Although RIC rarity is often criticized, better ratings are not available elsewhere.
- RIC rarity is wrong for many individual coin types but overall they are fairly accurate.
- Some of the RIC volumes are quite old and the ratings are dated. These volumes have many types listed as rare that are scarce at best, yet overall they are still fairly accurate. Most R5 coins are not unique but are very rare. Most R4 coins are also quite rare.
- Older volumes were based on older collections that tended to have more Western mint coins and fewer Eastern mint coins. Since many coins are now found with metal detectors in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the rarity of Eastern mint coins is more likely to be overstated.
- Rarity of very interesting types and coins of very rare emperors are probably understated because extra effort was likely expended to acquire those types for the collections examined.
- For RIC volumes that list the rarity of types by each officina the accuracy of rarity for the whole type is usually more significant and the least rare officina considered. Specialty collectors may, however, disagree and an R5 coin for a particular officina is probably very rare even if the type is not.