I’ve added these coins to my page on “the BCE Collection” (Barbarians, Captives, and Enemies on Roman Coins), but thought they were worth sharing here in more detail. In addition to the interesting imagery of captives on their reverses, each coin has a notable provenance and backstory related to the modern history of classical numismatics.
Sources: Coin photos above from CNG
1. Gordian III Sestertius (31 mm, 20.72 g). Rome, 244 CE. Victory balancing shield on the head of a captive.
Ex George His (1927-2021) & Adrian Lang (b. 1956; Part I) Collections.
This coin illustrated as “digital plate coin” for RIC 337a on Wildwinds.
Update: I later discovered this coin was also ex Mazzini Collection, published in his 1951 collection catalog (photos & commentary on Provenance Coins, Part V: Roman) & “plate coin” in Banti 105 (this coin illustrated on p. 331), in (1983) Il Grandi Bronzi, v. IV.2..
(The same imagery in “The Irony of Valerian’s Captive.”) A coin whose aesthetic qualities reflect the distinctive and remarkably similar backgrounds of its previous two collectors, Adrian Lang and George His. Both were mineral collectors in childhood (Lang since age 13, His since age 9), later working in related fields (His as a petroleum geologist, Lang as an engineer and construction manager in a mining district). I credit the collectors’ mineralogical backgrounds with inspiring their clear predilection for bronze coins with beautiful patinas.
Likewise, each collector focused on Roman Imperial Coinage, with a specific preference for coins with attractive portraits. Both collections contributed to scholarship, each with many published “plate coins” in the numismatic literature, and both collectors have contributed to museums in various ways (George His donated coins to ANS and British Museum, and served on museum boards in Texas; Adrian Lang donated his minerals to an important university collection in Dresden).
Both also seem to have had a special interest in Gordian III (George His much more so, having created one of the finest private collections of the emperor). Adrian Lang’s collection, in fact, included multiple examples of Gordian III from that of George His. It is curious, however, that this coin’s provenance to George His had been lost by the time of Leu Auction 12, given that Lang, like His, “attached great importance to coin provenances.”
2. Cripus Silvered AE Follis (19.5mm, 3.14 g) from London, c. 320 CE.
Ex collection of the authors (Cloke & Toone), acq. from Dei Gratia Coins at York Coin Fair, 15 Jan 2010; and ex Paul DiMarzio Londinium Collection (CNG e-Auction 516, Lot 631).
See this coin on my Provenance Collections, Part V: Roman page.
An extraordinary rendition of the bound captives tableau for the 4th century VIRTVS EXERCIT reverse type, it’s easy to see why it was chosen by Cloke & Toone to be a “plate coin” (see also my Two Captives & Trophy: Prisoners of War on Roman Coins from Julius Caesar to Constantine “The Great”):
Being a relatively rare type (RIC VII 188, there “R3”), and based on various circumstantial evidence, I also suspect the coin is from Langtoft B Hoard, 2000 (PAS IARCH-D515B1), as published by Barclay et al. (2009) in CHRB XII, No. 21 (one of three coins of this type), and dispersed 13 Mar 2002 at Dix Noonan Webb Auction 53, prob. Lot 62 (part of). (Unfortunately, the hoard was not, to my knowledge, ever photographed in full.)
3. “Judaea Capta” Commemorative AE As (28mm, 9.40 g) struck by Vespasian in 71 CE. (The scarcer type spelled “IVDEA” instead of “IVDAEA” on rev.)
Ex Collection of Kenneth Bressett (1928 – ), the important & well-known American numismatist. Purchased in 1957 from Mark M. Salton-Schlessinger (1914-2005), from the famous extended Schlessinger-Hamburger family of Jewish numismatists in Germany (he used both names, Salton and Salton-Schlessinger). Shown with both of their tags on Provenance Coins, Part V.
Judaea Capta coinage is central to most collections focusing on ancient Jewish history. In this case, the modern parallels are stark, Nazi Germany having styled itself as a new Holy Roman Empire, which in turn claimed Roman history as its own. Salton’s immediate and extended family were captured and killed by the Nazis, forced to flee, and/or had their businesses seized during WWII and the Holocaust. For decades after, Mark Salton worked to recover coins and books looted from the business of his father, Felix Schlessinger (1879-1944), who was killed at Auschwitz in 1944, along with his wife and Mark’s mother, Helga Schlessinger (d. 1944).