What counts as Roman coins?
Roman coinage spans the Republic (moneyer-signed silver and bronze from around 300 BC), the Empire (emperor portraits from 27 BC to the 5th century AD) and the Provincial series struck in Greek-speaking cities. The main denominations to know are the gold aureus, the silver denarius, the double-denarius antoninianus with its radiate crown, the big brass sestertius, the dupondius and as, and the late-Roman follis and small bronzes.
The good news for identification: Roman imperial coins name their ruler. A string of abbreviated Latin titles around a portrait — IMP, CAES, AVG, PIVS — plus a recognizable name is often all you need to place a coin within a few years.
Step-by-step: identifying Roman coins
The sequence below moves from the fastest checks to the most specific ones. Stop as soon as you have a confident match, and note down what you observe at each step:
- Start with the headgear: a laurel wreath is standard on denarii and most bronzes, while a radiate (spiked) crown identifies an antoninianus (or a dupondius in the earlier series).
- Read the obverse legend for the emperor’s name and titles — IMP (Imperator), CAES (Caesar), AVG (Augustus) frame names like ANTONINVS, SEVERVS or CONSTANTINVS.
- Identify the reverse type: a personification such as Pax or Victoria, a deity, a military standard or a building, plus its own legend, narrows the exact issue.
- On later coins, read the exergue below the reverse design for mint marks — SMANT for Antioch, TRP for Trier, RIC-listed officina letters and all.
- Weigh and measure: a denarius runs roughly 17–19 mm and 3–4 g in the early Empire, a sestertius is a hefty 25–28 g brass coin over 30 mm across.
- Pin down the exact catalog number with RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) or Sear’s Roman Coins and Their Values.
Are Roman coins valuable?
Roman coins cover an enormous price spectrum. Common 4th-century bronzes sell for $5–30, presentable silver denarii of common emperors for $40–150, and attractive sestertii with smooth patina from the high hundreds up. Rarity drives the top end: short-lived emperors like Otho or Pescennius Niger, and gold aurei of any ruler, routinely bring four to six figures.
Whatever the exact type, grade and rarity set the price. Two examples of the same piece can differ tenfold between heavily worn and mint state, and recent sold prices — not optimistic price-guide figures — are the honest benchmark. CoinVault Pro shows live values built from Numista catalog data and real eBay sold results for everything it identifies.
Common pitfalls and fakes
Before you buy, sell or celebrate a find, rule out the classic traps:
- Cast copies of big sestertii — check for edge seams, casting pits and mushy detail.
- Tooled bronzes: re-engraved hair, letters or portraits added in modern times to “improve” a worn coin gut its value.
- Ancient plated counterfeits (fourrées) of denarii with copper cores peeking through — interesting, but priced far below solid silver.
- Trusting marketplace attributions: misidentified emperors and optimistic grades are rampant, so verify legends yourself.
Identify Roman coins instantly with CoinVault Pro
The fastest way to identify a Roman coin is to photograph it with CoinVault Pro. The app combines Gemini AI with Coin-CLIP image matching to name the exact type, estimates its condition on the Sheldon 1–70 scale, and shows live market values built from Numista catalog data and real eBay sold prices.
From there, CoinVault Pro works as a full collection manager: organize and filter your sets, share finds on the social feed, earn XP and achievements, take on daily challenges, and buy or sell on the escrow-protected marketplace. The app is free with ads, with Premium and Pro subscriptions on top, and your data is hosted GDPR-compliantly in the EU.