New Tetradrachm

Hello friends,

Here is my new addition:

EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian.
AD 117-138 Tetradrachm (23mm, 13.36 g)
Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Hadrian right / Laureate and draped bust of Nike right. From the Hermanubis Collection.- ex CNG

 

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That's a beauty, cool reverse.

 

Nike looks a hell of alot like trajan, thats just great. Nice coin!

 

Wow Great coin!

 

My first thought on seeing this coin, before I read anything, was "Oh, it's Hadrian showing Trajan on the reverse." I assumed it must be one of the issues from his first year, where he tries very hard to convince everyone that Trajan totally named him as his successor before dying, yessiree, no doubt about it. But this is a Year Ten (Dekatou) and the wings would make sense for Nike. Still an interesting artistic choice by the celator. Oh, and that's a great coin!

 

Utterly fantastic! Tremendous eye appeal with that one.

 

Is it just me or does Victory look kind of like Trajan?!

It a GREAT looking coin svarog!!

edit****... I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that @Parthicus !

 

I'm not seeing Trajan in the bust of Victory, but it's still a very unusual style. Great coin!

 

Beautiful coin!

 

I picked up the Year 11 Helios bust from the same auction. I still wonder about the conservation methods used that gave all these Hermanubis Collection tets their rather uniform look. I’m looking forward to giving it a closer look when it arrives.

 

Killer addition!

 

I love that OP coin

 

At first glance, I thought the OP coin was a dual ruler type...so I can 'see' the Trajan resemblance....and it's a terrific coin I'd love to own!!

 

Thanks all for kind words!

 

Great coin, absolutely Trajan-like reverse.

 

The one I got from the last CNG mail sale (lot 465) described as "dark gray-brown surfaces" struck me as pretty obviously smoothed and retoned. Hoards processed by the British Museum tend to have a certain reddish 'look' from their batch processing. I regret that it is no longer fashionable for coin descriptions to 'out' things like this. I don't know that I will be avoiding such coins when the coin is something I really want but my bidding on such items is going to reflect this 'preference' which means other people will be outbidding me regularly. I find these hard to photograph and make natural looking. Is 'Hermanubis Collection' a real collection or is it something made to sell hoard coins or decorate slabs?

 

How many coins have a bust of nike rather than showing her whole figure? I can't remember seeing that before.

The surfaces of those do have a chemically cleaned and treated look. Maybe they are from hoards stored in similarly dry conditions?

 

I wondered about this, too. But I thought 'Hermanubis' was a collector buying a special type of Alexandrian coins. They have their own style, an unusually artistic outlook, and they are often exceptionally well preserved.
It is a very large collection spreading over several auctions. On the August auction I was outbid in all cases, but I won a few very nice ones in October (they have yet to come in). A.o. a tetradrachm featuring the god Hermanubis.
Does anybody know anything about the collector 'Hermanubis'?

 

No idea who the collector is, but clearly they had access to a large amount of exceptional material (hoards as well as collections?). That the coins all have the same look indicates conservation by the same person/s. I haven’t tracked the collection very closely, and have only just won my first from them in the most recent auction, but the first sales over two years ago made quite a splash. IMHO, we saw the best and rarest coins in those first auctions, even though all the recent ones are still very nice. There have been over 500 coins from from the collection sold so far... who knows how many more there are.