is this worth buying?

[nasu]

I was looking for a Hadrian travel series denarius and I stumbled on this for a reasonable price but I don't know if it is worth buying.

[John Conduitt]

Welcome to the forum.

You can get quite a lot better, but at a price. As usual, it's a balance between cost and condition, and so depends on your budget and how nice you need the coin to be before you're happy with it. If you are collecting the travel series, I would try for better if you can. If you only want one travel series coin, I'd go for one of the more interesting designs.

Edited December 5, 2022 by John Conduitt

[Prieure de Sion]

Welcome at the forum!

It's always a matter of personal preference and the budget you're willing to spend. In the end, the most important thing is that you alone are satisfied and you like coin. 

If you like you can say what you paid. Then we could tell you whether that was rather below or above the market price - so that you can learn a bit here to estimate. 

[ambr0zie]

It mainly depends on the price. I'm not fussy when it comes to condition - this coin would do the trick for me. For a Hadrian specialist - perhaps too worn and with ugly corrosion.

[nasu]

@John Conduitt @Prieure de Sion @ambr0zie Ok thank you guys, I will probally look for a better one.

[Prieure de Sion]

7 minutes ago, nasu said:

@John Conduitt @Prieure de Sion @ambr0zie Ok thank you guys, I will probally look for a better one.

Why? 

Because YOU don’t like it? 

The only failure as collector you can make - is to pay too much for a coin, because the condition and price relation is not correct or the coin is not rare as seller told you.

If you payed a normal average price for this type and YOU like the coin - everything is ok! 

[nasu]

@Prieure de Sion Ok, I have not bought it yet so Im going to look at a few more and pick the one I like the most.

[John Conduitt]

52 minutes ago, nasu said:

@Prieure de Sion Ok, I have not bought it yet so Im going to look at a few more and pick the one I like the most.

This is a good approach, although don't feel obliged to buy a coin just because it's the best of the coins available right now. The thing about ancient coins is that there is always another one along in a minute. If you aren't sure what's good condition or a good price, you should probably wait a while to see what comes up. Sometimes, you can wait months looking at coins that are not quite right, but sometimes one will appear next week that you know you want. At that point, you will know it's right because you will have seen the different price points, styles and conditions.

Edited December 5, 2022 by John Conduitt

[Romismatist]

I recently acquired this type as I have been collecting Hadrian's travel series on and off for about 30 years. This type actually took a while to get an example of because most of the ones I encountered previously were either in pretty dismal condition or were ones I was suspicious of as potentially being fakes (yes, I am pretty paranoid about that these days). Based on my experience, this type is pretty hard to get a hold of, harder than others like Aegyptos or Hispania, for example. I think the OP coin is in decent condition and I would have considered it previously. If you can get one with an older providence like my example helps dispel any fears of it being a modern forgery (your coin looks pretty genuine to me).