Provenance & Plate Coins VI: Byzantine & Contemporaries

(Photo credit: CJJ.) Coll. Hist.:
– William Herbert Hunt (1929-2024) Collection [Sotheby’s 6148: WHH, Part II (21 Jun 1991), Lot 178 (presumably) ; Bruce McNall, numismatic agent];
– prob. ex Ian Roper Collection;
– Frank S. Robinson Auction 126 (7 Dec 2024), Lot 303 (with his tag).
Publication: SB 223 (this coin illustrated) in David R. Sear, Byzantine Coins and Their Values (London: Seaby), p. 67 in first ed. (1974) & pp. 72-3 in second (1987 & later).

Substantive Notes: A fascinating detail about late Antiochene Folles of Justinian: The obverse legends became illegible starting in 562/3. The standard hypothesis is hard to accept, that Antioch started using only illiterate engravers for obverse dies. But not for reverse dies, since their legends remained legible! Why only the obverse engravers? (If such a division of labor even existed.) Why, for 3 or 4 years, couldn’t they inscribe a single legible obverse die?
G. Bates (1970, “Five Byzantine Notes,” pp. 73-4) made a provocative suggestion: The Antioch mint might have deliberately “blundered” them. But why?
Bates notes that Antioch was among the Empire’s last strongholds of paganism. Justinian carried out his final great purge in 562, publicly buring books & idols, and arresting & parading priests (two from Antioch). Perhaps, Bates suggests, the mint acted in silent resistance, refusing to inscribe Justinian’s name & titles.

Notes: Most of the “plate coins” from Sear’s 1974 Byzantine… book came from the Ian Roper Collection. It’s unclear exactly how they were dispersed, but some bronzes appeared in Seaby Coin & Medal Bulletins (c. 1970s-80s). Many also ended up in Hunt & other collections. Most probably by private treaty.
The Hunt Brothers are known for attempting to corner the silver market in the 1970s. Even more fantastically, W.H. Hunt reportedly instructed his numismatic agent, coin dealer Bruce McNall (1950-), to do the same with Byzantine gold coins when first introduced to them (McNall 2003: p. 66):
“I mean all the coins there are, in the world. Everything.“

Above: My copy of McNall‘s (2003) memoir, Fun While It Lasted, is signed & inscribed to one of his high-profile lawyers who was also a client! (Who, in turn, gifted it to a family member, also a public figure in Los Angeles, with a note: “Memory lane! He’s very candid.”) The quote about WHH is on p. 66.

Above: My copy of Frank Robinson’s numismatic autobiography (1992, Confessions of a Numismatic Fanatic) is inscribed to his longtime friend Dr. Joseph F. Marcelli (1926-2018). The pair were fellow officers in the storied Albany Numismatic Society, alternating as President and Vice-President in the 1970s (and co-Vice-Presidents together 1975/6), among other posts held.
Although FSR doesn’t illustrate the present coin, he mentions it indirectly on p. 16, noting that some of his Byzantine coins are now “superior to those illustrating the major catalog” (this being one of those illustrations)!

(Photo credit: CNG.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Ex “Yellow Ticket” Collection of Byzantine Bronzes (see note below) [CNG e-Auction 549 (1 Nov 2023), 755];
– prob. ex Ian Roper Collection.
Publication: SB 882 (this coin illustrated) in David R. Sear, Byzantine Coins and Their Values (London: Seaby), p. 166 in first ed. (1974) & p. 189 in second (1987 & later).
See also: Calciati p. 35, No. 10 (this coin indirectly cited, “SB 882”).
Notes (Roper): As noted for the Justinian Follis above, most of the SB “plate coins” (esp. AE) were Roper Collection, but few of their provenances have survived.

(Photo credit: R Suarez.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Rasiel Suarez (1969-) Collection [CNG EA 484 (27 Jan 2021), Lot 978 ; acq. ebay, 28 March 2005].
Publication: ERIC II “cover coin” & p. 1319 (this coin illustrated: Obv. 5 & Rev. 8), in Rasiel Suarez (2010), Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins (2nd Edition);
– R. Suarez (2011) AORTA: A Guide Book for the Roman Coin Collector (this obverse illustrated on back cover).
See Also: Tantalus 179 = Coryssa / COINVAC ID #1044946 (this coin);
– The Celator 25 (1), Jan. 2011: p. 44 (this coin shown on ERIC II cover in book review by Berry & Beasley) & The Celator 24 (9), Sep. 2010: p. 39 (same, but in advertisement).

Note: AU 98.52% per XRF report (no. 651) from R. Suarez rec. with purchase, along with signed & numbered (1415) copy of ERIC II.

(Photo credit: CNG.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– “Yellow Ticket” Collection of Byzantine Bronzes (see note below) [CNG e-Auction 550 (15 Nov 2023), 678];
– prob. ex Ian Roper Collection.
Publication: SB 1612 (this coin illustrated) in David R. Sear, Byzantine Coins and Their Values (London: Seaby), p. 264 in first ed. (1974) & p. 307 in second (1987 & later).

(Photo credit: CNG.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Simon Bendall (1937-2019) Collection [CNG EA 473 (29 Jul 2020), 458, cataloged by Peter J. Donald (Bendall’s collaborator on The Later Palaeologan Coinage)];
– (probably) ex “Hoard of Thessalonican Trachea” (Bendall, NC, 2001: p. 274, Table [USA parcel], not individually recorded; see below).
Notes (bio): Bendall was one of the most important Byzantine numismatists in recent generations, a prolific scholar from the 1960s to 2010s. (My brief bio links bibliographic sources.) Bendall focused especially on this period (13th-15th cent.), often credited as the first numismatist to make Palaeologan coinage comprehensible to a wider audience.

My copy of The Later Palaeologan Coinage shown above (ex BCD Library) is autographed by both Bendall and his coauthor/illustrator, P.J. Donald (who also cataloged the present coin for CNG’s sale). Bendall & Donald published this type for the first time in LPC p. 232, 6, in 1979 (still the standard reference). At the time, they believed this type was anepigraphic, since an example with legends had never been seen.

Notes (Provenance): Bendall later published a commerce hoard containing this type, cataloging 12 examples in the “Hoard of Thessalonican Trachea” (NC, 2001), a strong candidate for this coin’s provenance. Shortly before publication, Bendall learned that Harlan J. Berk acquired an additional parcel from the same hoard, including 6 more coins of this type. Given this coin’s scarcity and appearance (glossy dark green patina under tan dirt, long cleaning scratches), I strongly suspect this coin was from the hoard.

What might Bendall have seen in this particular coin? Of the 12 he cataloged, there were “only two coins of the type with any reverse legend… Only on 23 is there any trace of legend on the left side” (2001: p. 259, die-match to mine). Though not as well preserved, the present coin was only the second with the right side of the legend (and third with any legend) known to Bendall. At 2.11g, it is also by far the heaviest recorded example (the others 0.8-1.7g).

As the coins above show, the legends read, to the right: AͶΔ (for Andronicus); and, left, “four very small and poorly engraved letters which seem to be: M˅˄V” (for Michael).

(Photo credit: CNG.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Luis A. Lopez Martinez [CNG EA 504 (17 Nov 2021), 556];
– Hugh George Goodacre (1865-1952) Collection [Downie-Lepczyk 70 (17 Sep 1986), 275 (“Goodacre’s Byzantine Empire,” not illustrated)];
– Ducal House of Saxe-Coburg, Gotha, under curation or collection of Curt von Bose (1808-1884), Leipzig (by 1842).
Institutional Hist.: Housed at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, c. 1952-1986, the Heberden Coin Room [Goodacre Loan by Mrs. N.J. Goodacre, coinciding w/ Colin Kraay’s (1918-1982) service as assistant (from 1948), then Keeper of Coins (1975-1982)].
Publication Hist.: Goodacre p. 312, No. 3 (this coin illustrated), in Hugh Goodacre (1957/1933), Handbook of Coinage in the Byzantine Empire, Part III, reprinted from Numismatic Circular (1931) [my copy ex W.B. Porter Lib.];
– Goodacre (1938), p. 159, No. 1A (this coin illustrated), in “The Flat Bronze Coinage of Nicaea,” Numismatic Chronicle Vol 18;
– Goodacre (1931), p. 157, No. 7 & Pl. Plate XI, No. 11 (this coin illustrated), in “Notes on Some Rare Byzantine Coins.” Numismatic Chronicle Vol. 11;
– Sabatier (1862), Page 293 & Pl. LXIV, fig. 12 (this coin illustrated by Leon Dardel [1814-1892?] in idealized line drawing merged w/ DOC 56.1 = Fig. 11), in Description générale des monnaies byzantines frappées sous les empereurs d’Orient…;
– de Saulcy (1842), Page 416 & Pl. XIX, No. 7 (this coin illustrated by Leon Dardel in unsigned line drawing, from Bose coll.), “Catalogue Descriptif de Monnaies Byzantines Inédites et Nouvelles Observations sur Quelques Monnaies deja Publiées,” Revue Numismatique Vol. 7 [“Suite Ducal de Gotha. Je dois la connaissance de cette intéressante monnaie à M. Curt de Bose, de Leipzig“];
– Barthélemy (1866), Pl. 5, No. 183 (this coin illustrated after de Saulcy/Dardel 1842), in Nouveau Manuel Complet de Numismatique Ancienne: Atlas.
Selected additional publications below...

Above: Goodacre’s illustrations from his Handbook (first published in Numismatic Circular, 1931, serialized alongside Sydenham’s Caesarea & Rogers’s Thessaly) & two Numismatic Chronicle articles (1933, 1938). Interestingly, he produced new casts & photos each time.
Below: Two sets of line-drawings by Dardel (1842, 1862) illustrating the same coin, but with a few significant differences. The first is an early unsigned work (de Saulcy 1842: Pl. XIX, 7), the earliest known publication of this type. Dardel and de Saulcy made educated guesses to fill in missing portions of the legend, but got them wrong! (continued…)

Twenty years later, for his magnum opus, Sabatier found a better specimen, allowing him to illustrate a more complete obverse. Dardel (again) presented both reverses (mine being Fig. 12, almost unchanged from 1842), but merged their obverses in a single idealized drawing. The “better specimen” (Fig. 11) was, in my opinion, almost certainly from the Fürstenberg cabinet, later Cahn 75, Lot 1759 = Peirce collection = DOC 56.1 = Hendy 34.1 = Grierson pl. 71, 1175.
(See also Dardel note.)
Below: The earlier (1842) drawing was reproduced in Barthélemy’s (1866) popular little (24 x 15 cm) numismatic manual (my well-used copy below; click to enlarge).

Selected Other Publications: BMC Vandals p. 219, note 1 (this coin cited to Sabatier 1862 & de Saulcy 1842), in Warwick Wroth (1911), Catalogue of the Coins of the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Lombards and of the Empires of Thessalonica, Nicaea, and Trebizond in the British Museum [my copy ex Tom Cederlind & Shanna Schmidt Libs.];
– Thomsen 836 (this coin cited on p. 66 to Sabatier LXIV, 12), in (1873) Catalogue de la Collection de Monnaies de Feu Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, vol. II.1 (Copenhagen: Thiele);
– Rynearson No. 140 (this coin illustrated on p. 28, after Dardel’s 1862 line drawing No. 11), in Paul Rynearson (1967), Byzantine Coin Values: A Guide [shown below, my copy signed by Rynearson & inscribed to Eardley Madsen & Ethel Madsen];
– Krestev 2291 (this coin cited to Goodacre 3), in (1970) Bewertungstabelle von den Byzantinischen Münzen… [my copy ex Malloy Lib. w/ bookplate];
– wildwinds “digital plate coin” on John III page (SB 2114).

(Photo credit: CNG.) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Dr. Jay M. Galst (1950-1970) Collection, w/ tag [Triton XXV [Online, 11 Jan 2022], 6767];
– Erich Wäckerlin (d. 2018) Collection, w/ tag [Münzen & Medaillen GmbH 47 (23 May 2019), 217.2 (part of 3) ; Münz Galerie München (Jan 1988)].
Publication: Wäckerlin 217.2, Coins of the Crusader States and their Successors. The Collection of Erich Wäckerlin (M&M GmbH 47) = Zeno 224655.

(Photo credit: Kunker) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Dix Noonan Webb 189 (10 Mar 2021), 793;
– Tim Wilkes FPL 23 (July 2017), 99;
– Künker 204 (12 March 2012), 1088.
Publication: ICV 1203 (this coin illustrated on p.117), in Tim Wilkes (2015), Islamic Coins and Their Values, Volume 1: The Mediaeval Period (London: Spink).

Notes: The catalog does not name the collector (or even call it a collection), but Künker Auktion 204 closes with a dazzling selection of Turkoman figural bronzes (pp. 152-163, most of lots 1033-1102). [PDF on Issuu. W.W. Esty’s Turkoman biblio counts 55 coins (but 57 on his main catalogs p.); I count 56 “figurals,” but it depends how.] Incidentally, my copy of Künker 204 is ex Bibliothek Alois Wenninger (I suspect he cataloged portions), his monogram top r. cover.

(Photo credit: Aureo y Calicó) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Colección Tonegawa, Part I [Aureo y Calicó 247 (15 Feb 2024), 348].
Publication: FBM Ca9 (this coin illustrated on p. 48), in Federico Benito de los Mozos (2017) La Plata Almorávide y Postalmorávide: El Quirate (Manquso 7) [direct to PDF];
– NVMISMA 237, 16 (this coin illustrated on p. 297), in Tawfiq Ibráhim (1996), “Miscelánea de Numismática Andalusí,” pp. 291-305″ [avail. from SAIEN].

See Also: Feluses website (this coin illustrated): Almoravids page;
– Tonegawa site (this coin illustrated), Almoravids page (to coin photo).

(Photo credit: Aureo y Calicó) Coll. & Sale Hist.:
– Colección Tonegawa, Part I [Aureo y Calicó 247 (15 Feb 2024), 234].
Publication: Lorente-Ibrahim 65 (this coin illustrated), in J. Rodriguez Lorente & Tawfiq Ibráhim (1987), Numismática de Ceuta Musulmana;
– Armada (2010) Qa5.2.410 (third coin cited), p. 33 in Ariza Armada (2010), Dissertation: Estudio Sobre las Monedas de los Hammudíes de Al-Andalus (Siglo V-XI), Part II (corpus)
– (also in…?) Ariza Armada (2015), De Barcelona a Orán. Las emisiones monetales a nombre de los califas Hammudies de al-Andalus (Madrid: OMNI).

See Also: Feluses website (this coin illustrated): Al-Qasim ibn Hammud (al-Ma`mun) page;
– Tonegawa site (this coin illustrated), Qasim page (or, old site Archived).