CT Colleagues 1. I write to ask if anyone can assist with this provenance puzzle. I'm hoping that someone can recognize the dealer who wrote the envelope and label. 2. I purchased the following Roman Republican didrachm Roman Republic, Southern Italy (?) mint, 225 - 214 BC, 21mm, 6.22g obv: laureate head of Janus rev: ROMA incuse in raised tablet. Jupiter in quadriga, hurling thunderbolt and holding sceptre Cr 30/1, Syd 64b, BMCRR R-Camp 94ff 3. ... which came with the following old tag and label: Partially erased is "VF / Choice VF 32.50" 4. I know the coin isn't rare, and let's leave aside the original seller's grading ideas (!), but does anyone recognize the dealer's documentation or writing? 5. It would be nice to see if someone could at least identify the dealer. 6. My guess is that a price of 32.50 (dollars?) would place the envelope sometime in the 1970s. Any help or suggestions are welcome. Thanks for your consideration. D
The B. 23 must be Babelon 23, which = Crawford 28/3. The envelope is almost certainly from before Crawford's publication in 1974, or it would cite Crawford. But it looks like ballpoint pen, so I don't think it's terribly old. I have no idea how you would identify the specific dealer, unless someone happens to recognize the handwriting.
1. Thank you @DonnaML and @The Meat man for your comments, and other CT members who had a look. 2. I've checked some collectors' sites that post their tags, but didn't see anything similar. 3. My only additional information is that I think that if the price is in USD, the 32.50 price might date the envelope to the 1960s. So it looks like this little mystery will remain. Again thanks to all. D
You could look at some old auction catalogs from the 1950s-early 1970s at RNumis or the Newman Numismatic Portal, to try to see when 32.50 (either in USD or GBP) might have been close to a standard estimated price for didrachms from that period. Almost any decent-sized auction offering Roman Republican coins would be likely to offer a few.
I can't help with provenance. I can confirm B.23 is from Discription Des Monnaaies De La Republique Romaine by E Babelon; vol I, pg 21 - 22. Your coin looks close.
The envelope definitely looks aged and the ink looks sorta aged too. The wear on the envelope and the retail price written suggest that it is probably several decades old. As others pointed out, B.23 is from an older reference book/database.
1. Thanks again to those who take the time to look and reply (@ArtDeco and @rrdenarius). 2. While B23 is correct I do not understand why the seller selected Babelon as the sole reference, when Seaby's 'Roman Coins' and Sydenham's work (since 1952) were better known in North America and the UK. 3. I think that although finding any provenance is unlikely, the odds are a little better by searching for the coin rather than the dealer. So I'll start with some of the Roman Republican coin auction catalogues found on Andrew McCabe's site. My quest might be a little easier since I am looking for a chubby Janus! D
The numbering system for the Republican coins in Volume I of Seaby's multi-volume "Roman Silver Coins" (known as RSC) is derived from Babelon -- just as the Imperial coin numbering system is derived from Cohen -- and has been cited more often than Babelon since the 1950s. It's not unprecedented, though, for some dealers to have continued to cite Babelon. Even today. Since your envelope appears to come from a fixed-price coin dealer, searching for the same specimen in auction catalogs will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I suggest you look first in acsearch or the cng archives, both of which go back about 20 years (although the latter is limited to coins sold via cng itself). Do a search for the words didrachm or quadrigatus, along with the Crawford number.
I learned a lot from this WIKI article but found special interest in the prices for the first ball points. I came on the scene when I had BIC Cristal in high school and they got cheap all of a sudden. I also recall being told it was improper to use a ball point pen for a formal letter. I wish Jamesicus were here to tell us all about this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballpoint_pen
I'm pretty sure that by about 1964 or so, when I first started using pens instead of pencils sometimes for schoolwork, around the 5th grade, ballpoint pens had achieved widespread market saturation, and were quite inexpensive. I destroyed many of them by chewing on their ends! I know I've never used a fountain pen in my life.
1. Thank you @DonnaML and @dougsmit for your sleuthing! 2. From Donna's observation that Seaby's Roman Silver Coins (RSC) uses the Babelon numbers, I guess the seller used RSC to attribute the coin. 3. My 1978 edition of RSC lists B23 at GBP 200, so I'm inclined to think the envelope with its 32.50 price comes from the 60s. ... and while I've seen the same obverse die with the chubby Janus as my coin in a number of old auction catalogues, so far I haven't found a match. Take care and thanks again D
