A COMPLETE HOARD FOR SALE…

I really think I’m gonna be sick; CNG will sell in its May auction a complete hoard discovered in England in 2018 (except one coin of Gallienus). Including: Valerian (3) // Gallienus (151) // Salonina (15) // Claudius II (109) // Divus Claudius II (13) // Quintillus (8) // Aurelian (2) // Postumus (17) // Marius (3) // Victorinus (278) // Tetricus I (532) // Tetricus II (257) Uncertain Gallic empire (52) // Uncertain emperor (including fragments) 23 // Irregular (22). The estimation for it is 7,500 USD. It sucks to be poor…

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=5577&lot=917

 

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This is @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix right now:

 

What's more interesting is will it be pieced out or will the person that buys it keep it intact?

 

A great big glob of common 3rd century coins that would require a team of cleaners to conserve? No thanks. It's the sort of thing that belongs in a museum display, flowing out of a broken pot, captioned, "What A Newly-Discovered Hoard Of Ancient Coins Looks Like."

 

Yeah, except that it seems they've been taken out of the pot and cleaned at least enough to attribute), so now it's just 1485 grotty coins, pot not included.

Maybe they should just make an NFT of a photo of the *really* intact hoard, and sell that!

 

That's cool. With some creativity I think someone could make a pretty neat display out of these.

 

It would look great with @DonnaML collection.

 

532 Tetricus I coins. I just want one Marius.

 

Wow that is pretty cool.

 

They've sold a few really cool looking hoards with the vessels in the past. Not that I'm the kind of buyer who could ever spend 10s or 100s of $1,000s on coins in a weekend, but I always pay very close attention to those. It's all the stuff that goes with the coins that I find fascinating.

By far the greatest complete hoard I've seen listed at CNG was "The Ghazzat Hoard" (or "The Gaza 1960s Hoard") = Triton XIX (4 Jan 2016), Lot 82. 27 spectacular archaic coins. Hammer, $450,000!

Photo Credit: CNG, cngcoins.com


It has a wonderful backstory, too, if you read the article below (or their description, I think, gives an abbreviated version).

I'm not sure what the disposition after the sale was, but there's an article about it (pre-sale) by Fernando López Sánchez and Daniel Gómez Castro (2015) in American Journal of Numismatics 27: 1-18. (Online: https://www.jstor.org/stable/90017060.) It's also got a very minimal wikipedia article, but it does include some images.


They've had other interesting Greek archaic and hacksilber hoards, such as CNG 97 (17 Sep 2014), Lot 1.

The Romans, below, I only noticed later, long after they were sold (c. 2004 & 2006).

My favorite ever Roman hoard they sold was Triton VII, 1044 & 1045. Roughly $60k for the pair, including auction fees. (I'm sure many of us have the campgates below without knowing it.)

Triton VII (12 Jan 2004), Lot 1044. "Medallic silver bowl of one Roman pound (200 mm, 330 gm=1 Roman pound). Ephesus ‘mint’, 1 March 322 AD." Plus 85 coins from the hoard. Hammered at $40,000.

Triton VII (12 Jan 2004), Lot 1045. "Licinius I - Constantine II. A nearly intact hoard of 915 folles (see the previous lot for the remaining 85 coins from the hoard and its container)..." Hammered at $8,000.

Photo Credit: CNG, cngcoins.com

" Silver bowl with simple curved profile. In the center is a struck medallion within a lathe-cut circle: LICINIVS AVG OB D V LICINI FILI SVI, bare-headed, draped, and cuirassed facing bust of Licinius I. On the outside of the bowl, near the rim, is a small round stamp: EUG/EFE/MEB in three lines. Three medallic bowls of the same issue (one of Licinius I, with design and legend identical to the present piece, and two of Licinius II) were in the ‘Munich’ Treasure: J.P.C. Kent and K.S. Painter, Wealth of the Roman World AD 300-700 (British Museum 1977), pp. 20ff., nos. 1-3; B. Overbeck, Argentum Romanum: ein Schatzfund von spätrömischen Prunkgeschirr (Munich 1973), pp. 23, 29. Complete, bent and cracked, with remaining encrustation from the bronze folles that were secreted within.

Lot also includes: a partial hoard of 85 folles found with the bowl (see the next lot for the remaining 915 coins from the hoard). All coins are "Campgate" reverse types issued from the mint of Heraclea, struck in the names of Licinius I, Licinius II, Constantine I, Constantine II, and Crispus. The coins are uncleaned, some with heavy encrustation, but most appear to have minimal, if any, wear, and a number exhibit well-silvered surfaces under the encrustation. (See the next lot for further information on this hoard.)"​

One other:

CNG 103 (14 Sep 2006), Lot 1295. 5453 mid to late-3rd cent Ants from a find in Dorset (always with the finds in Dorset! just throw a shovel there and you'll hit a hoard!), hammered at $20,000:

"Coins are grouped in large brown paper envelopes, each envelope noted with general attribution. Lot includes the intact bottoms of two pottery vessels that contained the coins, as well as additional fragments of the vessels."​

 

The visionary in me sees the winner donating the hoard back to a local museum.

My inner cynic, however, sees the coins slabbed and hyped at $249.99 each, genuine red oak presentation box included at no additional charge. Flex pay available.

 

Here's an interesting line from CNG's description (my emphasis added) of the OP hoard:

"The complete contents of the hoard, save for a single Antoninianus of Gallienus that was retained by The British Museum."​

It's always interesting how few of the coins the museums actually want.

I bought a handful of coins from another British Hoard (Wareham, Dorset, 1994 [PAS ID: IARCH-3DB3D1]) that contained ~1,569 AR Antoniniani, and in that case the British Museum chose to keep only 2.

(As Mike Markowitz wrote in 2016, in most cases, Museums Hate Ancient Coins.)

 

Just saying - I would be interested in pooling to get the item split proportionally.

 

I'd have to try to clean them first. No thanks! They'd be good for @hotwheelsearl when he gets back here. Something to do during those long evenings aboard his ship.

 

Is there some way to see which coin the British Museum kept? I would like to see the coin that stands out above 1500 of its peers.

All I found was this, which is not a good photo:

https://www.glosnews.com/articles/big-give-christmas-challenge

 

It appears to be this coin: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/_2021-4038-1

Milan mint. Obv: IMP GALLIENVS P AVG. Rev: P M TR P VII COS / MS
Bibliographic references: RIC5 / The Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. 5. Part 1: Valerian I to Florian. Part 2: Probus to Diocletian (cf.456, p.?)
Registration number: 2021,4038.1
Treasure/PAS number: 2018T124
Treasure/PAS number: GLO-756722 (PAS ID) (PAS ID)​

Usually to find out you would consult whatever article or chapter or report the hoard was published in. In this case, I'm not sure it's been published yet (although there seems to be a description in the journal Britannia but I don't have full-text access). It may be published in the next Coin Hoards in Roman Britain, perhaps there's been or will be a brief summary in Numismatic Chronicle. This will often indicate which coin(s) have been accessioned by the British Museum.

I found that one simply by searching the British Museum's digital catalog for the word Bicknor. The details given seem to match up with the hoard described. It was only accessioned in 2021, so a lot of time was spent cataloging them (and any cleaning?). Then it'll be a while before an academic publication comes out.

Edit: "spent several months undergoing conservation and analysis," so yeah, apparently they were cleaned at the BM.

 

About 7500$ in expenses for distilled water too, I guess.

I bought part of a hoard once, back in 2008 I think. 800 uncleaned late Roman coins. Not doing it again.

 

The picture does not represent this hoard. The picture represents one of 19 amphorae full of thousands of early 4th c. Tetrarchic folles, discovered in Spain in 2016.

 

... think we're lQQking at one in the OP...

 

The hoard looks like it hasn’t been properly identified. Perhaps there is a Domitianus II or a Proculus in the hoard.