Featured FInding Provenance

Oh! Apologies: Once again, I read too quickly. You said you acquired it mid-1990s.

Noticing that, it could show up in a Coin Hoards report (i had already checked the recent Coin Hoards X, 2010), maybe in Coin Hoards VIII or IX. I'll give a look & let you know if I see anything.

Back then it was indeed quite scarce-to-rare, so it would be noted. Not sure it would make it into some of the major auction catalogs, but I could see it being plated in certain sales.

Do you remember where you bought it? Brute force checking is too hard for a single coin but a clue can narrow it down.

I will look in a couple likely sources: At that time, the Hunt brothers, and Athena Fund were buying up a lot of the new finds. (I found my Tarsus stater in the 1993 Athena Fund liquidation sales from Sotheby's.) One of the later NFA catalogs might be plausible too.

Update 1: Wow, not a single specimen of this type in the three 1993 Athena Fund sales, which included hundreds of Cilician & Tarsus Staters. Interesting.

Update 2: Again, not a single specimen of this type in any of the four Nelson Bunker Hunt sales at Sotheby in 1991.

Update 3: Coin Hoards 9.380 ("Nagidos, 1989/90" hoard) = CH 8.91 ("Southern Cilicia, 1989/90"), reportedly included 27 Tarsus AR Staters & was dispersed in trade. Burial described as c. 380 BCE, which is consistent with this type of Tarsus Stater.
Published: Levante "Le Tresor de Nagidos," in Amandry & LeRider, 1994, Tresors et circulation monetaire en Anatolie antique. (I don't have this ref.; not available online, to my knowledge.)
Well worth considering this possibility.

Two other possibilities:
CH 9.393 (Unknown findspot, 1983), CH 9.394 (Unknown findpot, c. 1988/9), both "to be published by A. Meadows," also had 18 and 12 Tarsos Staters (don't know what type), and were dispersed in commerce.

**

Also: If the 1990s purchase date is correct, I'm now thinking this was quite a rare and notable coin at the time. I don't have SNG von Aulock, but he had at least one of these (SNG vA 5319). According to ISEGRIM (text only, notes 8 museums specimens), Hans von Aulock's specimen weighed 10.09g.

If that's close to yours, I would definitely want to get a look at the plate to see if it's the same coin, that would be great. The timing would fit the early SNG vA dispersal. (But it would be more darkly toned, unless cleaned later, since he would've acquired it by the early 1960s.)

Anyone with an SNG von Aulock set willing to check the photo and see if it's the same coin? (OP photo/comment)

 

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@Gallienus, apologies for the slow response, as others have shared ACSearch is much less expensive than Coin Archives and very useful - the ability to search with an image to find your coin or die matches is an interesting and relatively recent feature.

My avatar coin is not L.C.Sulla but rather C. Coelius Caldus, I have not yet added a Crawford 434 (Sulla portrait coin) although I am still looking. (my favorite RR's can be found attributed here: https://www.sullacoins.com/roman-republic)

AR Denarius, Rome, 51 BC
Obv: Head of Coelius Caldus to right, standard inscribed HS behind, [standard in the form of a boar before]; C•COE[L•CALDVS] downwards before, COS below
Rev: Table, inscribed L•CALDVS•VII•VR (ligate) EP•VL (ligate) in two lines, with figure behind preparing epulum; on right, trophy with Macedonian shield; on left, trophy with carnyx and oval shield decorated with thunderbolt; [C•CALDVS] downwards on right; IMP•A•X downwards on left, CARVS (ligate)•III VIR below.
Ref: Crawford 437/2b; RSC Coelia 9
Notes: 3.70g, 17mm, 6h

 

Wonderful article - unfortunately, I purchased much of the higher grade coins in my collection from Eastern European sellers during the "amazing influx" of ca. 2000 - 2008 (when I was buying). I doubt very much I will ever be able to find provenance on any of these coins. I do have an IMP X Pax sestertius of Septimius Severus purchased about 10 years ago on French ebay and previously posted on this site that Curtis Clay was able tell me that, amazingly enough, was part of a collection of a well known British scientist - I did find a book dated about 1830 +- with his collection online and inside - there was my coin. I will try to enlarge on this with a picture of the coin and a link to the book, or whatever it was that showed the coin.

Blake

P.S. There are some amazing auctions going on in the next month or so. Included in these auctions are hundreds of group lots with thousands and thousands of coins. It looks like a large number of these have desert patina - makes sense since that part of the world is in upheaval - somehow that means large numbers of coins make it to market from that part of the world. Makes me wonder if the "amazing influx" referenced above was related to the war in Serbia - or was that just a coincidence.

 

I think yes, that is partly the case. I've seen it explained by four contributing factors: Yugoslavian Civil War(s), c. 1991-2001; the fall of the Iron Curtain (c. 1989-1991); the proliferation of high quality, low-cost metal detectors (beginning slightly earlier in some places); and ebay (c. late 1990s, where most of those coins were sold, literally millions of them, directly to collectors for the first time, rather than to local distributors or coin dealers in Vienna or Munich or Zurich).

There are actually many scholarly papers that discuss the ancient coin market in that region/period, both as a specific historical event and as part of the broader pattern of antiquities "mining" & trade in conflict zones. (I haven't opened up my bibliography on it, but if anyone's interested, I can try to share more notes & references.)

Usually I think of that period as beginning in the mid/late 1990s. I see it discussed every so often in coin groups, sometimes described as a sort of "golden age" of eBay or of uncleaned coins; of course, people in the law enforcement and archaeological world have a very different perspective on it.

I think there may be some question of how many of those coins had been stockpiled & warehoused over many years (if so, someone speculated very wisely!), as opposed to all having been metal-detected post-1990. I do think there's agreement, though, that the "easy finds" in the Balkans were mostly harvested and exhausted well before 2010 (i.e., within half a meter of the surface, or whatever the exact number).

New coins are still coming out in large numbers, but it's nothing like what there was 20-25 years ago (when the $300 "unopened bags of 1,000 uncleaned Roman coins" included everything up to Sestertii and Dupondii, often "easy cleaners" in beautiful condition, and there would still actually be a certain number of good silver Denarii and AR Antoniniani, etc.).

(If you consider what that means for archaeological sites -- that, within 10-20 years, virtually every site in the region had been found by detectorists and unsystematically dug up, whether coins were present or not -- it becomes easier to understand why some people get upset about coin collecting and think of it as "looting.")

 

Hi Sulla80,

Your denarius of C. Coelius Caldus is a beautiful piece and a wonderful reverse design. I'm highly motivated to look for one for myself!

Do you have a direct link to your piece on your website? I can show you how to do this in HTML if you need to do the coding. I'd like to read about the history involved in the interesting reverse design.

My mistake, I thought it was L.C. Sulla from the resemblence to his portrait.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla,
denarius, 54 BC
Roman Republican Coinage, Crawford # 434-1
weight 4.160 g
My denarius, ex-Stack's, 2008, Sept 10th, #257.

While my piece is quite high grade, I'm missing the "COS" in SVLLA COS on the obv legend. Finding a nice high-grade piece with full legends tho is tough even if Sulla is not nearly as expensive as he should be compared to J.C. I'd like to eventually get a better one and sell this one.

I wonder why the 50's BC was quite full of people issuing portrait denarii? This is an interesting contrast from the usual Republican issues. This summer I just bought a really nice Brutus ancestors issue & it too was struck in 54 BC.

I'm hoping to do a presentation at FUN summer, on Roman Coinage: The Imperatorial Era. That's why I got the Brutus.

 

@PeteB has a nice one for sale here: http://akropoliscoins.com/page4a.html

Here's the link to my coin - not written up yet on my blog.

https://www.sullacoins.com/roman-republic?pgid=kezu10xh-ff194168-6c7d-4a18-92cd-9a015c267a7c

The main theme of this coin is the Achievements of C. Coelius CAldus Connsul in 94 and ancestor of the moneyer (C. Coelius Caldus, Quaestor of 50 BC)

"The coin portrait presumably was modeled after an original sculpture of Caldus from the time of his consulship, c. 94 B.C."
-Gazda, Elaine K. “Two Roman Portrait Reliefs.” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 1 (1974): 61–72.​

I wasn't quite sure what you meant by "direct link"? happy to have any advice on how to best link.

If you do decide to sell yours - let me know (PM).

The personalization of Roman denarii definitely picked up as time went on. No one issued coins with pictures of themselves - just pictures of their ancestors - until Julius Caesar decided that norms and laws should not apply to him, and the Roman republic never recovered....soon only one portrait mattered and everyone served the emperor - no matter how delusional he was.

Commodus as Hercules
https://www.sullacoins.com/post/commodus-the-best-of-men

 

Not a super important provenance, but a nice surprise.... Pair of surprises: coin and literature.

In addition to coins, I really love provenanced numismatic literature. Especially with my coins inside. Especially-especially if it's a coin w/ lost provenance. And super-double-especially when I've recovered lost provenance for both coin AND literature.

Previously posted it once. (Need better photo.)

​

Antioch (Seleukis & Pieria) AE Tetrachalkon (20mm, 8.0g, 2h). Pseudo-autonomous issue, Pompeian Era (?), 1st century BCE.
Obv: Bust of Zeus facing right, beaded border
Rev: ANTIOΧΕΩN THΣ MHTΡOΠOΛEΩΣ. Zeus Nikephoros (holding Nike & scepter) seated right.
References: Cf. RPC I 4216, 4231 type; HGC 9, 1366-1372; McAlee 43.
Provenance: Ex Alex G. Malloy FPL XXIX (1972), No. 527 ($5), w/ AGM's hand-written envelope.
[When did I acquire/from whom? ca. 2003-13? G. Dayton [IL], N. Hochrein [WI], Agora or VAuctions?]
​

Last night, I was annotating a new group of Alex G. Malloy's Fixed Price Lists from 1969-1984, from the American Numismatic Society Library Duplicates.

What a surprise! I can't believe Malloy went to the trouble -- especially >50 years ago when coin photography was difficult & expensive!

But here it is! In Malloy's FPL 39 (Aug-Sep 1972):


I notice the envelope is very similar color & paper stock to Malloy's catalogs. Also, the lot # (527) is penciled in the top r. corner. I suspect that's whose envelope this is:



What I love about booklet-sized Fixed Price Lists: address labels & postage are often affixed to the back cover. So you can see who the original owner was, even 50 years later.

This one was Los Angeles area collector & professional numismatist Michael J. Shubin (1950-2008). He worked at Malter Galleries & elsewhere. Estate dispersed among ANS [Shubin archive/coll.], Getty, Emory University, and a few other institutions.

Alex G. Malloy FPLs (about 35 total), c. 1969-1984 (New York).
Ex ANS Library Duplicates;
Ex Michael J. Shubin Library.​

Incidentally, I also found someone else's coin, a Constans FEL TEMP REPARATIO. (Shared it on NF where its collector posts.)
(click to embiggen)

Re: Cultural Property Restrictions & Provenance Dates:​

Not trying to start a debate about restrictions, but as a practical issue, here's one reason it can matter:

The 1972 sale doesn't quite meet the 1970 provenance requirement sometimes suggested (i.e., pre-UNESCO Convention on Cultural Property)...

But it DOES meet the 1973/4 standard used by the AIA (Archaeological Institute of America) & for publication in AJA (Am. Jour. Arch.):

"The Archaeological Institute of America believes that Museums can henceforth best implement such cooperation by refusing to acquire through purchase, gift, or bequest cultural property exported subsequent to December 30, 1973, in violation of the laws obtaining in the countries of origin."
-- Resolution On The Acquisition Of Antiquities By Museums (19 Dec 1973)

"The publication and presentation venues of the Archaeological Institute of America will not serve for the initial scholarly publication or announcement of any object in a private or public collection acquired after December 30, 1973, unless its existence is documented before that date, or it was legally exported from the country of origin."
-- AJA Policy on the Publication and Citation of Undocumented Antiquities​

 

Another favorite of mine: Commodus as Hercules. I'm looking for the sestertius depicting that. I've a bronze As bought from a friend in TX when he was selling his whole collection but not it's as nice as it could be.


I've been told that a collector (named Fox) bought a really superb one for a very high price some years back.

 

Here's my latest coin with unexpected provenance from 1985 (referenced on the collector's tag and found in the Schulten Auction Oct 1985).
https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/4340 RPC VI 4340 (temp)
Here a collage with my coin images and the catalog reference.

 

Do you need help finding past auctions of this sestertius or do you mean one IRL to buy? I should be able to help if the former.

 

@rasielsuarez Speaking of which, would you mind providing the link to your online sales database? I saw it posted recently but I cannot remember where.

 

IRL = "in real life" I guess this is a current dealer offering? I tend to favor auctions as I find that many dealers do not carry the types of things that I'm looking for. Also they tend to be very expensive.

Right now I can't really afford one of these Commodus as Hercules sestersii. It would always be fun to see what they've sold for of course. If I find one nicely priced I might consider it. This type I'd like in high grade. I can always scrape by for now using the As in my collection.

Thanks very much!

 

https://www.coryssa.org/index.php

 

Yes! Thank you. It has been added to my 'favorites' bar.

 

My collecting interests, over the past 35 years have evolved to focus on Roman imperial bronzes; predominantly sestertii and medallions. My focus has been on the rarities, those of historical importance, and those with historical provenance. Researching these has evolved into amassing a numismatic library and important auction catalogs since the advent of photography. Here is a particularly interesting piece that I've managed to trace through several auctions. A bronze medallion of Commodus from December, A.D. 184 with an impressive mount. I would welcome any feedback on my presentation, research or any other subject area as I have quite a few more to present in the future. thanks!

 

Here is a bronze medallion of Antoninus from 138-139 A.D.. It has a long list of pedigrees dating back to Sir Arthur J. Evans in 1934. I Purchased this medallion 25 years ago.

 

I imagine that this was sold from the James Fox Collection in CNG/NAC Auction 40 4 Dec 1996. A very lovely collection and the nicest medium bronze lionskin I've seen. I was at this auction; the NYINC in the World Trade Center and examined this collection closely. I don't have the prices realized for this sale but this is the listing:

 

While I'm researching Commodus further, I discovered another sestertius that I bought 20 years ago from Freeman & Sear with no provenance. Apparently this type is much rarer than stated in RIC (Rare). I checked every major private and public collection from the 20th-21st century and found only 4 additional examples, though others most definitely exist. what do I mean by "private collections"? I'll provide a list in another post of the most comprehensive collections of Roman brass coins & medallions brought to auction.

 

Actually James Fox was in Houston, TX the same time that I was. I may have seen this coin at the time he bought it. I recall his price paid & the source.

I didn't know Mr. Fox sold his collection. He had a really good position & was able to afford really nice coins. I have one of these too but in lesser grade. A friend in Houston sold me his & i overpaid at the time at $375. I am looking now for a nice sestersius of the type.