My oldest confirmed provenance is a Clain-Stefanelli coin that I recently bought but had a hidden fabulous old collection appearance that wasn't noted. Q. Pomponius Musa. Denarius 66, AR 3.70 g. Laureate head of Apollo r.; behind, wreath. Rev. Q·POMPONI – MVSA Polyhymnia standing facing, wearing wreath. Babelon Pomponia 15. Sydenham 817. RBW –. Crawford 410/10a. Wonderful old cabinet tone and extremely fine From the collection of E.E. Claim-Stefanelli Jacob Hirsch, Dr. Freidrich Imhoof-Blumer, May 27, 1907 Lot 379 (32 Marks)
The Virzi coins sold by Hirsch were most likely not entirely from Tom Virzi but mostly from Ignazio Virzi who passed on much of his Greek bronze coins to Tom. Tom also purchased at the Pozzi sale.Bank Leu via Leo Mildenberg sold the Tom Virzi collection to Abe Kosoff and his partner Sol Kaplan.Joel Malter bought the collection, kept a few choice bits that interested him, like Akragas ae weights and then sold the collection back to Leu. Leu sold some of the lower quality pieces to another USA dealer who passed them on to Malloy.Ignazio and Tom Virzi were major dealers in the early 1900s in Europe (I have some of their receipts and 'dealing sheets'.