Early 20th Century Box Ticket

New coin added to my collection today, it came with an unexpected ticket as shown. Any ideas? BMC and Babelon cited but not Babelon suggests early 20th century. What might R557 stand for - a collection number perhaps? A reference I'm unaware of? Might it be ex museum given the quality of the box? - and that it says "cost" but not "price" on the ticket? All views welcome.

 

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My first thought was ex museum. Whatever it is, it is a great coin and a nice little holder. Makes me want to have individual boxes for all mine, as a nice alternative to slabs.

 

Great coin and great box! That must have set you back a decent amount. My JC is not nearly that nice. Do you have any other provenance on the coin or box?

 

Everything I know about the coin is in these pictures. It came from a generic slab merchant with the box separate. I need to know more.

It cost less than it should have - the photo was a bright through-slab picture and there were surface scratches on the slab. Looked awful. And .. the box and provenance were not mentioned at all.

Note the fine style. This is not typical of this issue. There are two good dies for this type, and about a dozen crude bad dies. This is one of the two good'uns. I always like to collect good style dies - and especially like when fine style dies are inside slabs, because slab collectors don't appreciate the extra value they impart as it isn't captured in the grading (though, oddly, in this specific case the slab said "Fine Style" but am not sure ppl pay much attention to such comments).

 

I cannot help much with the box itself...but perhaps I might shed a little light on the writing itself. Notice the heavier lines with the downstrokes such as the "d". This tells me the user might be using a flexible nib fountain pen. These were quite popular in the 40's and 50's. Also, note the think lines on some of the looped letters like "e". This tells me the user may be using an oblique (angled) nib. The relative thickness of the lines overall tell me this might be a medium nib. Overall, I would say an OM (oblique medium) nibbed fountain pen may have been used to write the description.

Take a look at the writing overall. To my eyes it looks like 2 different fountain pen nibs were used to write the description. Some of the writing like "R557" looks like a finer nib may have been used. One more thing, whoever wrote this was not particularly skilled in the art of using a fountain pen. Notice the many hesitant strokes. It looks a bit like someone was using ballpoint pen death grip instead of the proper fountain pen technique.

 

LOL - NEWSFLASH: "Caesar was not stabbed! Killed by the @Orfew Pen Death Grip! Story at 10"

 

FAKE NEWS!

 

Love these detective threads

 

Interesting coin and box Andrew. Sorry I can't help much but I did learn A A A FF is an abbreviated form of quattruorvir aere argento auro flando feriundo and that this was the first time the full title of the moneyer's office appeared on coinage of the Roman Republic. - Cool.

 

Wow, the portrait style on that coin is incredible! I'd love to see a regular full size photo of the obverse...

 

This reply by Craig McDonald on Forum: "boxes were made by collector Thomas James Clarke who had them made to house his coins. The ANS uses them to hold large cents" per pic. T. James Clarke Box and Label Works, Inc." founded by Clarke in 1916. More information on Clarke here:
https://coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n37a17.html

 

In perhaps the non-coincidence of the century (seems a coincidence but likely a linked event), while I was typing the above reply, look what the postman just brought, AGAIN with no warning - I had no idea to expect a second Clarke box, from an entirely different auction.

So. A collection being dispersed in these boxes.

 

So R557 on the first - older due to different citations lacking Sydenham - and R852J now begin to look like sequential collection acquisition numbers. Looks very museum.

 

"cost" is printed on the paper so probably they used scrap paper from logistical books to cut into coin tags? Unless the new one had the same price thing on the backside?

 

Second is in identical format with "cost" written to0. I assume that was part of the T.J. Clarke format. Abafils of the early 20th century...

 

Must have been:
Newman Coin Box

 

Hello Andrew!

I also received one of those boxes with a recent purchase. I will post an image of it in the morning when I get home from work.

 

I love how you just casually paste in an image with probably over half a million dollars in large cents in it.

Is it just me, or does the handwriting on your second box look somewhat similar to the first? Not exact, but similar.

 

Same handwriting. But for fairness I did also post a high value Roman Roman Republican coin in its box without mentioning it was Julius Caesar. And a beautiful Muse Urania. So, pretty even handed focus on the boxes while ignoring the contents, ancient or modern.

 

That was not a complaint, merely an observation.

I was able to view a collection of large cents up close at Long Beach worth probably $2M. There were about 2 trays worth of them, as I recall, so not quite all as high caliber as the ones you pictured, but close.