Out of the blue, a provenance hit from Ex-Numis

Remember two years ago when we were excited about the new provenance-searching company, Ex-Numis? Many of us submitted coins with the free introductory credits offered.

I submitted four coins I thought were likely to have "lost" pedigrees but unfortunately there were no hits.

I just got an email saying they've been improving their software and they found a hit for one submission-- two years after I submitted the images. It's nice to know they were telling the truth when they said they'd run the submissions over and over as their database grows and as their software improves!

The new provenance information not anything exotic or interesting, just an old CNG mail bid sale, but it's still a nice to know. CNG's online archives only go back to the early 2000s and the hit was from a 1995 mail bid sale.

Any excuse to show off this coin again works for me . Plus, it was one my favorite writeups. I had such a fun time making that diorama!


Elagabalus, 218-222 CE
AR denarius, 19.4 mm, 3.5 gm
Antioch, 218-219 CE
Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS FEL AVG, Laureate draped cuirassed bust right
Rev: SANCT DEO SOLI / ELAGABAL, Quadriga right, bearing sacred Baetyl stone, flanked by four parasols
Ref: RIC IV 195
ex Vauctions 310, lot 250 (25 Sept 2014)
ex CNG Mail Bid Sale 33, lot 914 (15 March 1995)

Most of you have probably already seen the old writeup , but in case someone new hasn't...
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-boy-and-his-stone.254886/



Has anyone else here received a hit notice recently from Ex-Numis?

 

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Here's the image from the 1995 CNG catalog. Hmm. I really need to reshoot this coin. My images are too contrasty and reflect-y.

 

Hmm, I submitted several; coins during the introductory period, but no hits. Maybe I will get lucky yet.

I really love that coin @TIF

 

hehe.. coiner coining ...ie....

 

That's really cool! Not to mention it's one of my personal favourites in your collection.

Also, it came with one of the few CT write-ups I have bookmarked.

 

SANCT DEO SOLI! One of my favorite coin types! Yours is especially nice. Congratulations on your hit. I think that any provenance adds interest to a coin, even if it's "just CNG."

 

me 2 Bing.. i've been trying to get a coin, any coin of old with the meteorite on it for years...at the right price of course..

 

Of course!

 

These SANCT DEO SOLIS come in a wide range of prices. As with coins in general, price depends on style, condition, strike.. well, all the normal factors that you know about. Provenance helps and a high end auction if you want a really expensive one (and I know you don't!)

I bought a couple of pretty terrible examples of this one just because I was interested in die links. Even the terrible examples weren't that cheap. Well, one was, but the other one I know I'll never be able to unload it for even half of what I bought it for. Maybe 1/3 on a good day.

 

Have you considered an Antoninus Pius Syrian issue with eagle standing on the sacred stone of El-Gabal? They can usually be acquired for a modest sum.


SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Emesa. Antoninus Pius
AD 138-161
Æ24, 12.06 gm, 11h
Obv: Laureate head right
Rev: Eagle, holding wreath in beak, standing right, head left, on baetyl of El-Gabal
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 309 (Γ in right field of rev.); SNG München 811 var. (Є in right field of rev.); BMC 1-7 (various letters on rev.)

Here's a good page about baetyls on coins: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/baetyl_coins.html
To moonmoth, whoever you are... kudos . I really enjoy your site and have used it since the beginning of my ancient coin collecting. It's loaded with fun and educational pages.

 

huh..no i haven't.. i was kinda wanting one that was carting the rock around.. but that's an idea tho, thanks @TIF

 

yeah, the last stone in the cart coin i bid on was a Greek provincial bronze and it went for a $100 and that was about 2 years ago..

 

hehe.. we, the members of the "to tight for tets" club

 

...and now I feel like a big idiot:

I hadn't updated my FileMaker database in a few years. Apparently that CNG mail bid sale pedigree was known because that information was given in the auction listing when I bought it and I recorded it in my database. I paid Ex-Numis to view the new hit, yet I already had the information .

 

oh well..i learn something old every day ^^

 

LOL

So, in this case, the "lost" pedigree information was lost by me

It has been so long since I submitted the coin that I don't remember what they ask for, other than the images. Was I supposed to submit the known pedigree information? I'd better write and ask some questions.

 

That's good to know. From time to time, I have submitted coins to them that I've been unable to provenance on my own but which have "the look" of old collection coins. I have not received hits on most of those. Maybe I should not abandon hope.

I'd be happier with Ex Nvmis if there was more transparency on the content of their database. I'd have expected them to have uploaded all CNG catalogues before they opened for business to the public - I'm kinda surprised that they had to follow-up with you on that one. Perhaps their algorithm is also being tweaked so that they get new hits on old database material? We have no way of knowing one vs the other.

 

Well, I'm glad you posted since I love that Elagabalus and the writeup is one of my favorites I've read here. I'd be willing to bet that 9 out of 10 of you here in ancients keep better records than me.

Here is your catalogue entry from CNG XXXIII which I found online:


--as an aside:
Haven't posted much since you replied to my Hadrian Nilus thread which I much appreciated. As mentioned, I got sick with the flu and after a few horrendous days in bed I emerged smoke free after 27 years - laid them down since the nicotine was almost out of my system anyway. Still not feeling quite 100%, but then again I can hardly remember what it was like not to be a smoker.
-d

 

That sounds rough! Glad you're better. Funny how a bout of sickness can help with smoking cessation. Somewhat similarly, although I quit smoking 30 years ago, I chewed nicotine gum ever since. I tried so many times to get off the gum. No form of quitting assistance helped. In late 2016 I had surgery and the anesthesia and first few days of recovery were rough. I lost the desire for nicotine and haven't chewed the gum since. It took several months for the brain fog to lift though. For a while I considered resuming the nicotine just so I could think! My gum habit was such that I had much greater levels of nicotine on board than at any time than I did during my smoking years. I still miss that cognition boost. Oddly, I've had tremendous trouble sleeping ever since quitting nicotine! You'd think it would be the opposite, but I slept quite well in the nicotine years and the dreams were always lively and memorable.

 

I don't want to derail your thread, but you said:

and crazily enough I've been so tired since quitting. I had to consult the global database the other day with the query "Does quitting smoking make you tired". Read a lot about nicotine and the brain and evidently sleep can go both ways - and this is the main reason why I've been here less since I quit. I've always turned in for bed a bit before midnight which provided plenty of time for my own activities after the family has gone to bed. Now it's like 10:00 !!!!! LIGHTS OUT.

Good for you on quitting the nicotine, it's a hard thing to do.