Tarentum Didrachm with Provenance - TEKE Fraternity Prize

Got this off eBay in a buy-it-now auction. Seller didn't seem to deal in many ancients and let it go pretty cheap. He shipped fast, and to my surprise, included some provenance paperwork from 1958 with it (not described in the auction). The coin was awarded to the winner of a name-the-newspaper contest for Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Any other weird provenances out there? Any frat brothers or sorority sisters? I was far too dorky for a frat and spent my time in the dorm, alas.






Calabria, Tarentum AR Nomos
ΛYKΩN Magistrate
(c. 280-272 B.C.)
Helmeted, nude warrior on horse right, spearing, crowned by Nike flying left, ΣI behind, ΛYKΩN under horse / Taras astride dolphin left, holding kantharos and trident,
GU in right field. Vlasto 730; SNG ANS 1096. (6.18 grams / 19 mm)

Provenance: Presented as gift to (Army) Chaplain Luther W. Evans for naming Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity magazine The Tidewater-Blue Ridge Teke in 1958 (see letter from Harry Donnelly and Sept. 1958 article in The Tidewater-Blue Ridge Teke, page 3)

 

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What a wonderfully odd provenance! Very cool Nice coin, too.

I know nothing about fraternities and sororities. As a college freshman in 1981 some girls were talking about rush and I thought my favorite band was coming to town.

 

That's funny, TIF. College sophomore (first year away), 1983 - same thing happened to me. People talking about rush and Greeks, etc. and I was absolutely clueless.

 

Incidentally, I was in a frat called TEKA, and for a second I was shocked that it might be the same group of belligerent misfits I associated with at my alma mater!

 

I was a Sigma Pi ΣΠ for a couple years. And, yeah, we were an Animal House. Stupid fun, but I needed to leave and get back to my studies.

Winged Boy on Dolphin - stupid fun!

RR Lucretius Trio 76 BCE AR Den Neptune dolphin boy Sear 322 Craw 390-2

 

Great coin! I have a few of them myself but not that type with the horseman spearing. I really like it.

No frat for me but I did see Animal House...


I do wonder (As does Robert K. from Calgary Coin) why do dealers call these Nomos?

A quote from Robert: The Greek word "nomos" appears to simply mean "acceptable currency" and is an accounting term rather than the name of a specific coin type or denomination.

 

Sigma Chi fraternity for me until I graduated in 1992. No coins involved in any of our activities. However, one of my frat brothers ordered all kinds of magazine subscriptions for us under the name of I WONA PAYE, and of course he never did.

 

It seems many of the names applied to coins were either words meaning 'coin' (like Nomos and Nummus) or things made up by collectors who needed to have a label (antoninianus, aurelianus). Why do dealers call it Nomos? Possibly it is because the other choices seemed less appropriate.
I went to a college were many more boys were in frats than Independents. They made pledges say the Greek alphabet three times while holding a burning match. My year there was only one student who majored in Greek and he was an Independent. I.

 

I wish I had been in a fraternity that awarded ancient coins as prizes!

Nice to see that the paper work stayed with the coin after all these years.

 

A strange provenance indeed, but very interesting. If I had that paperwork I would immediately scan it and make PDFs so I had an electronic record.

 

yea.

An anthem for us geeks of the 80s. Not that other decades would understand....

 

But then again, this has become my favorite version of this:

 

I liked the song about the shuttle taking off....on the B side of the album I'm pretty sure.

 

Oh man, you guys have sent me back in time on a Rush binge. Thank you! (sincere-- it has been too long).

You're probably thinking of Countdown from Signals, the album after Moving Pictures.

(cue @lordmarcovan's space shuttle denarius)



Side note of the TMI variety: for most of my postpubescent life, Neal Peart was my secret dream man . (prior to that it was the Professor on Gilligan's Island).

 

I'm also an 80's metalhead, and while I no longer have any hair, I fondly remember my head-banging days:

 

Loved seeing Eddie again.

My favourite from Iron Maiden. I am also a fan of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

 

Its quite well known that Neal Peart is the greatest percussionist of all time. I you younger members dont know, look it up!

 

Awesome provenance. I have a few.

 

Nice score, Mike... that's an excellently unconventional provenance. I wanted mine because it's an ex Vlasto Collection coin, but that pedigree seems almost staid in comparison to yours .


CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.97g, 21.4mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 400-390 BC. Fischer-Bossert Group 26, 361a (V164/R283) = Vlasto 339 (this coin, illustrated in both); HN Italy 850. O: Naked ephebos on horse galloping right; small Λ below. R: Phalanthos, holding torch, riding dolphin left; TAPAΣ below.
Ex William N. Rudman Collection (Triton V, 15 January 2002), lot 1043; CNG Auction 53 (15 March 2000), lot 31; Ex Vlasto Collection, 339 (Michel Pandely Vlasto, 1874-1936)