I always get a kick when a coin I buy arrives with its old owner's tag... I just feel it somehow adds to that coin's unique history. I was therefore especially pleased when one of my latest coins, an ex BCD Collection Phlious hemidrachm, came with not just one but three old tags, including BCD's. One thing that's interesting about these tags is that they sometimes indicate the old prices for the coin. Though of course I know one can't assume that these were the actual sale prices, I still find it amusing when for example I see a 1965 price of £8 on a Corinth stater I paid $300 for . In the case of this particular coin, I paid $104, and the various prices shown on the tags are Nk 450 (around $75), £175 ($300) and $395. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe that the one in British pounds could be the Sear value. I eventually did discover the coin's actual last sale price - $250 on a $400 estimate in Pegasi XXIX on 6 Nov 2013. This was thanks to the fact that the coin already has an entry on the Wildwinds Phlious page, where it keeps good company with a lovely Phlious obol from the TIF Collection (on this occasion I swear I wasn't coinstalking TIF ). The coin and the tags: PHLIASIA, PHLIOUS Circa 280 - 270 BC AR Hemidrachm, 2.37g, 14mm BCD Peloponnesos 143.6, Sear 2756, SNG Copenhagen 11. O: Bull butting left. R: Large phi within ivy wreath. Ex BCD Collection with his tag and another antique tag. Ex Pegasi XXIX, 6 Nov 2013 Please post any coins with old tags that you have (preferably along with the tags).
Very cool Zumbly! I really think those tags add to the character of the coin. It gives you some idea of where the coins have been at least in the last few years. It also makes me wonder who else has held the coin in the previous centuries. How long did it sit underground waiting to be discovered? Some of these ancients have probably been passed from collector to collector for over a hundred years. I think a lot have been unearthed in the last 70 years or so since the advent of metal detectors. It's fun to ruminate on either way.
I agree that the ol' tags add a certain something to the whole experience ... neat tags, my coin-friend (congrats) ahaha => I tried taking a couple of shots to add to your thread, but now that I've uploaded them at work, I see that they're all blurry (ooops ... epic fail) ... anyway ... I'll add 'em anyway (it makes your examples evn more impressive, eh?) ... apparently they are from an auction/collection from way back in 1902 (I will add the other info regarding the collection when I get home tonight) ... very cool
My favorite is the group I have from the Bavarian Collection as explained on my page: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac16.html
Zumbly, I also have a Phlious from BCD PHLIASIA (PELOPONNESOS), Phlius 400-350 BC AR obol, 11 mm, 0.84 gm Obv: forepart of butting bull left Rev: large Φ surrounded by four pellets Ref: SNG Copenhagen 8-9 from Triskeles Auctions, Oct. 2013 ex BCD Collection, not in previous BCD sales. Handwritten round tag and auction clipping indicates that BCD acquired this coin from Sotheby's, 26-27 May 1976, lot 88, for £55 + 10% VAT
I remember liking this coin when you first posted it, so I recognized it right away when I saw it on the Wildwinds page. Now our BCD coins are page partners... woohoo!
Oh, here is some "extra" info regarding my cool coin's pedigree ... I was incorrect (it was 1906, not 1902) ... From the Robert and Julius Diez Collection, Ex Gustav Philipsen Collection (Part I, J. Hirsch XV, 28 May 1906), lot 1132 Classical Numismatic Group, in association with Gitbud & Naumann, are pleased to offer selections of Greek coinage from the Diez Collection. This collection contains a number of coins with pedigrees to important sales of the early twentieth century. A portion was originally sold by Numismatik Lanz in 2011, and although a few of the pieces here were originally offered in that sale, most, especially the coins of Magna Graecia and Sicily, have not been seen since their appearance in sales over a century ago. Prof. Dr. Robert Diez (1844 - 1922) was the son of Emil Diez, the mayor of Pößneck. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Dresden, a city renowned for its culture and artistic associations. There, Robert studied art, becoming a well-known sculptor in the process. Much of his work was created for public moments in Germany, including the Reichstag in Berlin. A member of both the Dresden and Berlin Academy of Arts, Diez was influenced by the sculpture of ancient Greece. This naturally drew him to ancient Greek coins, which he collected until his death in Loschwitz, a district of Dresden, in 1922. Munich-born Julius Diez (1870 - 1957), like his relative, was an artist, professor, and intellectual. A painter and a graphic artist, Diez was influenced by the prevailing artistic trends of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among his works were book illustrations and items of ephemera (postcards, etc.). At the same time, Diez employed his artistic abilities to liberate art from conservative constraints. Besides publishing illustrations in the satirical journal Simplicissimus, Diez, in 1908, created a bookplate for the author and fellow member of the Münchener Secession, George Habich. This last work is notable not just for the social association, but also because two Greek coins were included in the design. Diez was also an associate of the German poet and writer, Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel. While it is uncertain which of the two men, Prof. Dr. Robert Diez or Julius Diez, started and built it, the Diez Collection offers a unique window into the collecting of Greek coins at the beginning of the last century. Of the 176 coins in this sale, only 26 are not pedigreed to earlier sales. Most of those that are pedigreed were sold by the important German and Austrian auction houses of the time — A. Hess Nachf., Brüder Egger, and Dr. Jacob Hirsch —and came from important collections including Consul Weber, Virzi, Philipsen, and von Schennis, as well as the Berlin Königliches Münzkabinett duplicates which were originally part of Imhoof-Blumer’s collection. The few other pedigreed coins were purchased from smaller German dealers, such as K. Schild in Berlin during World War II, and C.G. Thieme, who operated in Leipzig and Dresden between the 1870s and 1933. Since many of the coins in this collection where not illustrated in the original sales catalogs, their illustration in this sale will provide a useful supplement to those important sales of the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Very cool! I have one coin from the BCD collection. I hate it when I have and old interesting slip, that doesnt have any provenace lol
i have this flip insert that came with this coin (i have a couple other that are typed, but this one is hand written). whoever had this coin, he wrote everything down but the blood type of the buy who struck it. on the reverse is a date, 5/84.
