Rarity of Roman Coins On Rarity Rarity and the value of ancient Roman coins (Information of special importance to eBay buyers) by Warren Esty 'Rare,' 'scarce,' 'unlisted,' 'unpublished,' -- words that make a collector's heart beat faster. Collectors of US coins tend to relate rarity and value so strongly that they think a 'rare' ancient coin ought to be worth more, maybe much more, than its common counterpart. They have a lot to learn! Musings on rarity and value. First you need to know that there are on the order of 100,000 different common ancient coin types, and many more scarcer varieties. Therefore, collecting ancient coins is not at all like collecting a popular series (e.g Morgan dollars or Lincoln cents) where the number of types is so limited that you can hope to get them all, or almost all, and you are competing with many other collectors. Luxriot Serial Number there. These collectors want (or 'need') one of each in the series.