Created: 3 Jul 2022
Upated: 18 Nov 2022Jump to: Information (most of all!); Literature; Coins
Listed here are coins and literature I’m currently looking to add to my collection and library (i.e., not to re-sell, except in the case of duplicates). If you’ve got them and want to sell, please send a message, and hopefully we can reach an agreement. For many of these, we could also discuss a trade for coins or literature duplicates (depending on the coin, almost anything could be in play, including the Greek, Roman and Byzantine gold, and other stuff shown in the group shot on the homepage banner — better photos available, of course!).
INFORMATION!
Corinth Stater, Ex-Pozzi:
- Where was my Corinth Stater between 1921 (Pozzi sale) and 1991 (Glass Shoppe Coins, Tucson)?! There’s a good chance it appeared at least once in a catalog/list somewhere over those generations…
Aegina Drachm (SOLVED!):
*** SOLVED! ***
I made a lucky find from the last BCD Library Duplicates sale (Jacquier 50 [2022]). Among the group lots I bought was a copy of Colosseum Coin Exchange MBS 59 (22 Nov 1991), where I found my coin illustrated as Lot 2! (What’s more, the catalog was also ex-Joel Malter Library, originally stamped & addressed to Malter Galleries in Encino!)
- From which Colosseum Coin Exchange sale & lot number did I buy my Turtle Drachm? (I lost my CCE lists when I was still a teenager, but it might’ve been Mail Bid Sale 53 (22 Jan 1991), or an adjacent catalog (I’d be interesting in buying as many CCE lists as anyone would sell, but just the information and/or a page scan would be also be very welcome!);
Two Dattari Coins w/ lost provenances before 2018-2020:
- Dattari Collection: The origin of the Naville consignment will probably remain a mystery (at least to the public, incl. me), but I acquired others from collections entirely independent of Naville, two of them having lost their provenances until I (partially) recovered them. But I’d love to know:
- Does anyone recognize the dealer tag (above, center) that came with my Severus Alexander / Elpis Year 7 Tetradrachm (the only known specimen)? I bought it from CNG, from the “Rocky Mountain Collection of Alexandrian” (anyone know what that is?); it also came with a Harlan J Berk tag (not pictured), don’t know in which order they belong (I don’t think it could’ve been part of the Gemini XIII – Art. Inst. sale);
- Where was my Hadrian Drachm before it was encapsulated and sold by Heritage (21 Nov 2019)? (Then bought by J.P. Righetti, cracked out of the slab, cleaned, and sold at Nomos 24.) I suspect it may have been among the group lots sold at Gemini XIII (2017), possibly Lots 457 or 458, the consignment of Robert L. Grover Alexandrian de-accessioned from the Art Institute of Chicago. For whatever reason, a high proportion of those were in Savio’s 2007 Supplement (and, likewise, a high proportion of non-Naville D-S Supp. coins came from Gemini XIII). I hope HJB or Curtis Clay kept photos of the group lot coins not illustrated, but perhaps the coin’s buyer or consignor to Heritage will remember or have photos? Perhaps it’s older than that and is illustrated in Figari-Mosconi…
Malloy XXXI, Lot 402 = RPC IV.2 (Temp.) 11541:
- RPC describes the coin in question as a unique AE16 of Commodus with Nike left on the reverse, struck in Caria, Antioch. No such coin specimen is listed in Isegrim or published elsewhere (SNG Cop has Nike right). I suspect the coin may have been misidentified and it is actually Lucius Verus & Nemesis, as on my coin above.
- I don’t have a copy of Malloy 31 (26 Aug 1990) and RPC doesn’t show an illustration. My hunch is that it is, in fact, a coin from the Lindgren Collection now in my collection (RPC 11539.3). Lindgren had mistakenly IDed it as Commodus / Nike (it is actually Lucius Verus / Nemesis). I don’t know where Lindgren got this one, but it would make sense if he got it at Malloy 31: He was in the habit of scouring Malloy catalogs for rare and unpublished Provincial AE (two of my other unpublished Lindgren Coll. coins were from Malloy 33).
Reading BCD Collector Tags:
A few Phalanna AE with BCD tags. (Full size.)
Are the square tags BCD’s too? Only seen those with my Thessaly AE.
- Codes and abbreviations from the provenances given on BCD’s hand-written tags; though I show tag images online, I don’t necessarily explain what they mean unless it’s public information and I’m sure no one considers it sensitive; it’s all worth knowing, though, as the information if often quite valuable (intellectually, I mean, not financially — though I do think it’s a good thing to incentivize the preservation of provenance data);
- Note: some are clearly borderline public (just like BCD’s initials), but my approach to sharing is deliberately conservative (e.g., of GMRH, whose full name is no mystery at all to many collectors and dealers, BCD was willing to publicly share background but not their identity [CT 281007, 9 Jul 2016]; likewise, I won’t share the name openly, though by now their decades of selling activity make the name easy enough to learn);
- others are explicitly public (e.g., Prof. Dr. Peter Robert Franke [1926-2018] is well known to use his initials, PRF; likewise, Alan S. Walker, sometimes recorded as the seller ASW, often identifies himself publicly as such, and, in any case, is also well-known numismatic professional);
- DGP? Just a hunch: Could the holder of those initials have worked at Bank Leu in the 1970s? (Prior to ASW, but probably contemporaneous with SMH [1933 – 2009].) I’m curious about many, many others;
LITERATURE
- Giuseppe Figari & Massimo Mosconi. 2017. Duemila Monete Della Collezione Dattari. Genoa: Circolo Numismatico Ligure “Corrado Astengo”;
- I’ve never found a record of a used copy being sold — anywhere, at any time. I don’t expect it to be terribly expensive, but it seems only a few specialized collectors and researchers are interested in it (originally priced 30 – 50 Euros [discount for members of Circolo Corrado Astengo], printing of no more than a couple hundred)…. Judging from lamoenta.it discussions some buyers were dissatisfied, not having realized the volume is serves mainly as a supplement to Dattari or for provenance research. I’d be interesting in buying one copy – or many.
- Note: Figari’s 2,000 Dattari coins do not include any from the big consignment at Naville Numismatics (London) that began c. Auction 26, 22 Oct 2016, to present (or any RIC, such as those at Vico; Naville has sold Dattari coins published by Figari, but they were from other consignments). That’s a good thing: Figari’s 2,000 photos are in addition to the hundreds (thousands? haven’t yet counted) archived in Naville’s e-auctions. (I really look forward to the day when someone produces a combined volume of Figari-Mosconi + Naville Consignment, a virtual catalogue raisonné illustrating all known Dattari specimens with dispositions!);
- I assume that few or none of the Gemini XIII (ex Art Inst. Chi.) coins are included, except where earlier sales illustrated them prior to being donated by Robert L. Grover (c. 1979-1984).
- [Judd] Dr. J.H. Judd, 1966, “Illustrated List of Stolen Pieces,” Zurich: Bank Leu.
- I haven’t seen a digitized copy either, though I’d like to, if available (as far as I know, it’s not up on BNF-Gallica);
- Heritage Signature Sale 296 (New York, 30 July 2002)
- incl. Dr. Joseph Seventko Collection, of which I have one coin (the first major auction of encapsulated ancient coins, highly publicized in 2001-2 by both Heritage and the third-party grading company ICG with full page ads in the The Celator; ICG used the sale to advertise its new service: encapsulating & grading ancient coins; in the years since, Heritage has gotten much better at photographing/cataloging slabbed coins, and the market for them has grown, but the prices for many of these coins were disastrous);
- Ancient coin sale catalogs: Runs of illustrated American Fixed Price lists, or major European sales;
- open to anything, but a few specifics include: the early Kirk Davis catalogs; M&M fixed price lists if it’s a large enough group (there are >600 to patch together); early Pegasi lists that fit around the ones I have;
- Literature with numismatic bookplates / library stamps, etc. (i.e., of important figures in ancient coins, whether scholars, collectors, dealers, or otherwise notable);
COINS
Especially interested in coins from the following collections, catalogs, sales (with verifiable provenance — at least published “hearsay provenance” from a reliable source and/or documentary evidence of some kind):
- BCD Collection coins (esp. types missing from my current collection of coins published in the 10 major catalogs):
- BCD Boiotia (Triton IX [CNG]);
- BCD Olympia (Leu 90);
- BCD Thessaly (Nomos 4, especially coins ex Al-Thani [“Man in Love with Art”], many appearing at NAC since 2019, a few at CNG; not terribly hard to find, just haven’t found a price I found acceptable yet);
- Col. James Curtis Collection of Alexandrian Tetradrachms (sold across multiple sales by Schulman starting 1958 and Empire [Dennis Kroh]), especially those that passed through Aiello, K. Emmett, Atomic, DeVicci or Sinton, Wetterstrom, and other notable collections of Roman Egypt;
- J.Q. Adams et al. / MA Hist. Soc. (Stack’s, 5 March 1971) – especially with original sale tag and/or additional collection history, such as the many bronzes cataloged (bud sadly not ill.) in the wonderful 1979 John Sawhill / James Madison University sale (Lots 1001 – 1103; I’ve got a couple Sawhill/JMU Greek coins, but none ex-Adams/HSA);
- Apostolo Zeno Collection (Dorotheum, 1955 – 1957);
- Hewett Judd Collection, any of the stolen-and-recovered ancients (were all of the stolen ones illustrated in the Leu list above?);
- Isabella d’Este – Gonzaga family collection (see also EsteProject);
- Mark Salton-Schlessinger Collection (i.e., not just his FPL or dealer coins);
- especially those with pre-WWII provenance,
- or other cultural/historical significance; for example, I bought a Judaea Capta AE As that was ex Mark Salton-Schlessinger inventory for its historical relevance to his own life and family;
- Was it part of his “collection”? Don’t know: as a lower-volume seller, long-term collector, it’s unclear to me the extent to which his “inventory” and “collection” overlapped; the Stack’s and Künker sales clearly show overlap, but not whether it was total or partial;
- any ancients (not Russian coins) that appeared in Felix Schlessinger 15 (Amsterdam, 31 Jan 1939), Coll. Baron A. de la Chapelle, his final sale;
- coins with interesting chains-of-custody (i.e., two, preferably three notable collections; e.g., I’m always interested in the many [but few retaining provenance] “old stock of Jacob Hirsch” coins ex Bank Leu c. 1957 to 1979 +, especially those connected to Rhousopoulos, Petsalis, Prowe; hint: a very high proportion of Greek bronze coins bought by BCD in Jan. 1975, and in several batches in the late 1970s, fit the bill);
- any interesting “plate coins”;
- e.g., I don’t have any Sear RSC yet but many the illustrated ex-G.R. Arnold Coll. Severan denarii are floating about, among many others;
- anything once engraved by Dardel is a treat;
- other coins with interesting and important backstories relating the history of numismatic scholarship, collecting, publications, etc.
