Does anyone have any information about Etienne Paul Nicolas, a French collector to whom it belonged one of the best collections of Roman republican coins (dispersed at auction Bank Leu 17, 1977)? I mean, does anyone have any idea how, where and when his collection was set up and about the sellers from whom he may have primarily bought his coins? In the catalogue the coins are mostly without previous provenances
I don't have any information but perhaps @red_spork can help. He has (or had... he put it up for sale last year) the Bank Leu 17 catalog. It sounds like you've already looked through that catalog but perhaps red_spork, being a collector of Roman Republican coins, has more information about Mr. Nicolas. Another person on CoinTalk most likely to know more is @Volodya (Phil Davis).
I unfortunately don't have any additional information about the Nicolas collection or the collector outside of what's listed in the catalog and I can't recall ever seeing a Nicolas coin listed with an earlier provenance.
The best description I've been able to find is: "Dr. E. P. Nicolas was a well-known French collector of Roman coins, who was renowned for his very good taste. His collection was sold in a number of sales, mostly anonymous (as was his immense collection of Republican silver that appeared as Leu 17, 3 May 1977), but the bulk of his imperial coins appeared in Kampmann’s 1982 named sale, which took place shortly after he died. This sale was famous for the great quality of many of the pieces, and for the often bargain prices at which they sold! The Nicolas pedigree is a very much appreciated one for Roman bronzes. "
I have several coins from the Leu 17 Nicolas sale. His Roman Republican silver coins all acquired a characteristic, deep cabinet tone while in the good Doctor's care. I've sometimes seen this characteristc cabinet tone called "Nicolas tone". I have not found earlier provenances for my Nicolas Collection coins that I can recall, but some of my collector friends have found theirs in earlier European sales of the 1950s. Here is one of my ex Nicolas Collection coins, with the characteristic "Nicolas tone": Another of my ex Nicolas Collection coins:
I think it can be useful quoting Alan Walker's remembrance ("Rivista svizzera di numismatica", 88, 2009, p. 16) about the wonderful catalogue of Nicolas' coins compiled by Silvia Hurter in 1977, because he has told some details not universally known: "Another great triumph of Silvia’s was her superb catalogue of the collection of Roman Republican coins owned by the French collector E.P. Nicolas. This was the first time that such an extensive collection was catalogued based on the then new standard work of Crawford, and she was immensely proud of it. Nicolas, however, was not. A day or two before the sale he arrived in a fury because the catalogue was not done according to Babelon, which was for him an unforgivable lapse. Not only that, but she had carefully removed all the forgeries in advance and he did not agree, and he was enraged at the estimates and insisted on putting stiff reserves on a large number of the coins the day before the sale! Silvia was extremely upset and even wanted to cancel the auction, but Leo calmed her down and the sale became one of the most famous and successful Republican sales ever held most of the reserves turned out to be unnecessary). She did, however, have her revenge. When the unsold coins later appeared at auction in Paris after Nicolas’s death, they went for far less than they would have sold for had they not been reserved at Leu and the fakes appeared there as well). The Leu sale also was the occasion of a very amusing story that illustrates just how close-mouthed Silvia could be. Several months before the catalogue came out Charles Hersh, the distinguished Republican collector, came for a visit – he was a great friend of both Silvia and Leo. He sat down and Leo and Silvia began showing him the collection; almost immediately Charles exclaimed, “But these are the Nicolas coins!” And Silvia replied, “No they aren’t.” This went on for about ten minutes, with Charles saying they were, and that he remembered them from viewing them in Paris, and Silvia saying they weren’t, until Leo finally said, “He knows. He has seen them in Paris – he knows they are the Nicolas coins! We can admit it.” About the famous "Nicolas tone", it is exactly the reason of my interest: I wondered if he bought a consistent group of coins coming from the same dealer/source or if he kept his coins in particular environmental conditions
That is a wonderful Silvia Hurter and Mildenberg story! I expect Nicolas' storage method combined with careful coin selection are both responsible for the intense toning. Good surfaces tone well. Harshly cleaned surfaces sometimes tone badly or not at all. The Nicolas Collection was large, so I doubt that any one dealer source or hoard source could be responsible for the toning. The discernment of the collector and his storage methods are likely the common threads you are seeking. Maybe he was a tobacco smoker - I don't know whether that would accelerate toning and I'm not about to experiment!
Years ago we were always told that oak coin cabinets were bad because they toned coins and mahogany was the only 'good' wood. However, many cabinets I saw were oak. Do we have examples of coins that look the way they look because of long exposure to a known substance. Can anyone say that a coin is oak or tobacco?
