Some Bits of a Roman Republican Coin Collection

series: aes grave: Roma-wheel
This my favourite aes grave series because of the very high standards of production, contrast to other series with jagged-edge flans and massive casting flaws.

Notable provenances:
- Roma/wheel as is ex Leo Benz (1906-1996); his silver coins are well known but his collection includes many good bronzes too
- bull/wheel semis is ex Captain E.G. Spencer Churchill 1876-1964, cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, He fought in the Boer War between 1899 and 1901 as captain in the Grenadier Guards, and in the First World War where he was wounded twice and awarded the Military Cross and the French Croix de Guerre avec palmes. He bought the coin in the Mario Ratto 1932 E.H. Schwing collection sale
- dog/wheel quadrans came from Brad Thurlow's collection, who was of course the author along with Italo Vecchi of the standard catalogue on aes grave that replaced Sydenham's 1926 book
- tortoise/wheel sextans is amazingly high relief; it came from Santamaria's 1951 Signorelli sale, and before that Baranowsky's Valerio Traverso sale in 1931 (same sale as the Joseph Martini collection)



Crawford 24/3 As Obv: hd Roma r Rev: wheel, I within spokes. Provenance: JD coll. ex Lanz 88 (23 Nov.1998) lot 8 Leo Benz (1906-1996) coll. ex Kurpfälzische Münzhandlung 15 (12 Dec.1978) lot 198
Crawford 24/4 Semis Obv: bull rearing l, S Rev: wheel, S. Provenance: Bowers and Ruddy Dr. Richard P. Ariagno coll. 9 June 1980 lot 230 ex Christie's (7 Dec.1965) lot 135 Northwick Park Capt. E.G. Spencer Churchill ex Mario Ratto (1 Dec.1932) lot 91 coll. E.H. Schwing coll.
Crawford 24/5 Triens Obv: horse l, oooo Rev: wheel, oooo. Provenance: Ed Waddell Sep.1988
Crawford 24/6 Quadrans Obv: dog l, ooo Rev: wheel, ooo. Provenance: CNG24 (9 Dec.1992) lot 36 Bradbury Thurlow coll. ex Carlo Crippa FPL 4,1968 lot 253
Crawford 24/7 Sextans Obv: tortoise Rev: wheel, oo. Provenance: Kricheldorf 29 (3 Mar.1975) lot 221 ex Santamaria Signorelli coll. Part 1 (25 Oct.1951) lot 41 ex Rodolpho Ratto FPL XXI (1939) lot 22 ex Baranowsky, Joseph Martini & Valerio Traverso colls. (25 Feb.1931) lot 35

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Thank you and I would love to but honestly I have very little time for forum browsing anywhere. But I wanted to post these collection pictures and my personal commentaries on a forum where they would be widely seen - it's a lot of work to do these write-ups. Of course I'll be delighted if you link to them, and in the case of questions on Lamoneta or indeed anywhere else, please let me know if there's something where my opinion might be appreciated.

 

Series: aes grave Dioscuri-Mercury with Sickle
As with the silver types, the Crawford series 25, 26 and 27 made in the 230s and 220s repeat the types of the coins made in the 270s and 260s, sometimes with symbols (sickle in this case). It's unsurprising but not well known that these later series are usually found in better condition than the earlier ones, witness for example my RRC 25 dolphin/thunderbolt triens here with sickle as compared to the heavily worn coin from RRC 14 above; I would have been delighted to get the RRC 14 in such good condition but the great provenances on the earlier coin show that it is as good as reasonably available.

Some notable provenances:
- Minerva/Venus sickle semis is ex H.C.Levis coll. Naville Ars Classica XI June 1925
- thunderbolt/dolphin sickle semis is ex Schulman 1949 Drijfhout van Hooff coll.
- hand/barley grains sickle quadrans is ex Knobloch coll., Stack's 1978



Crawford 25/4 As Obv: Janiform hd Dioscuri, I Rev: hd Mercury l, sickle. Provenance: Münzen Medaillen DE 2 (27 Mar.1998) lot 345
Crawford 25/5 Semis Obv: hd Minerva l, S below Rev: hd Venus l, S below sickle behind. Provenance: NAC40 (16 May 2007) lot 372 ex NFA XXVIII (23 Apr.1992) lot 962 ex Schulman Coin and Mint 90 (10 Oct.1972) lot 315 ex Rodolpho Ratto Riche coll. (25 Jan 1926) lot 11 (CHF 60) ex Naville Ars Classica XI (18 Jun.1925) lot 18 H.C.Levis coll.
Crawford 25/6 Triens Obv: thunderbolt, oooo Rev: dolphin, oooo, sickle. Provenance: Schulman 29 March 1949 lot 33 A.H. Drijfhout van Hooff coll.
Crawford 25/7 Quadrans Obv: right hand facing / ooo / sickle Rev: barley grain / ooo / barley grain. Provenance: Stack's (3 May 1978) lot 6 Knobloch coll.
Crawford 25/8 Sextans Obv: scallop shell, oo Rev: caduceus, oo, sickle. Provenance: Rauch MBS 9 (23 Sep.2005) lot 397
Crawford 25/9 Uncia Obv: knucklebone Rev: sickle, o. Provenance: NAC 9 (16 Apr. 1996) lot 460

 

series: Roma-Roma with club
another series that repeats much earlier types with a symbol added, in this types are per RRC 21 Roma-Roma but with club. Once again the earlier series is rarer and much more trouble to find in decent condition: as a collector if one has a choice between aes grave with or without symbols, choose without symbols for rarity if one can!

one notable provenance:
- RRC 27/7 thunderbolt/thunderbolt with club triens is from Henry Clay Lindgren's collection. Lindgren published a number of important books on Greek bronzes based on his collection but also had a number of Roman Republican coins. He was an active collector until his late 90s.



Crawford 27/5 As Obv: hd Roma r, club behind Rev: hd Roma l, club behind. Provenance: JD coll ex Jacques Schulman 264 (26 Apr.1976)
Crawford 27/6 Semis Obv: hd Minerva r, S below, club behind Rev: hd Minerva l, S below, club behind. Note club is missing from Crawford descriptions. Provenance: Münzen Medaillen DE 2 (27 Mar.1998) lot 334
Crawford 27/7 Triens Obv: thunderbolt, club, oooo Rev: thunderbolt, club, oooo. Provenance: Frank Kovacs MBS 16 (29 Sep.2004) lot 296 ex Henry Clay Lindgren coll.
Crawford 27/9 Sextans Obv: scallop shell, club, oo Rev: scallop shell from inside, club, oo. Provenance: Harlan J.Berk BoB 131 (2 Apr.2003) lot 477

 

I’ll do for sure!

 

Wow! What an amazing collection, @Andrew McCabe! I’m not sure which tray, or which coin is my favorite, but I do love those AR didrachmae.

If displaying your coins is part of what drives you to collect, I think you should make an interactive website for them, similar to @AncientJoe’s Colosseo Collection site. The trays would make great image maps that you could then click on and get larger photos and more detailed information about each coin.

 

My girlfriend is a part time professional photographer, and I guarantee you if she were in the market for a new lens, she would want the absolute sharpest lens she can afford. She shoots primarily events where you need to be able to capture a dynamic scene under changing l not everyone has the luxury of being able to crop out the periphery of every shot, like we do with coin photography.

Well, you sure know how to leave things on a high note.

 

I have had an interactive website, continuously since 2004. It needs a bit of refurbishment right now but has hundreds of thousands of words text and links to 2000 photos.

http://www.andrewmccabe.ancients.info

I've also maintained a photo site (which is the database the website runs off) since 2009 with 8000 numismatic photos as of right now (not all public as some are copyright)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/collections

Always short of time and evidently some house cleaning needed and updates to fix broken photo links etc but I think I'm pretty well covered.

Since 2004.

 

series: aes grave prow right libral

The classic prow bronze series. This is a tough series to find provenances for, as they are usually unillustrated in old catalogues, and there are a lot of them. The sextans is the plate coin in Thurlow/Vecchi 1979. The as comes with an old India ink ticket



Crawford 35/1 As Obv: hd Janus, I under head Rev: prow r, I. Provenance: Baldwin's 2001 with old India ink ticket
Crawford 35/2 Semis Obv: hd Saturn l, S Rev: prow r, S. Provenance: Münzen Medaillen DE 2 (27 Mar.1998) lot 351
Crawford 35/3a Triens Obv: hd Minerva L, oooo Rev: prow r, oooo. Provenance: Hirsch 296 (13 Feb.2014) lot 1989 Ziegler coll. ex Lanz 40 (25 May 1987) lot 457
Crawford 35/4 Quadrans Obv: hd Hercules l, ooo Rev: prow r, ooo. Provenance: English Amateur Scholar collection, purchased January 1999
Crawford 35/5 Sextans Obv: hd Mercury l, oo Rev: prow r, oo. Provenance: Peus 393 (31 Oct.2007) lot 414 ex NAC25 (25 June 2003) lot 225 ex Sternberg XI (20 Nov.1981) lot 430 ex Birkler & Waddell 1 (7 Dec.1979) lot 208 = Thurlow Vecchi ICC (1979) pl.35,55 (this coin)
Crawford 35/6 Uncia Obv: hd Roma l, o Rev: prow r, o. Provenance: English Amateur Scholar collection, purchased June 2002

 

series: aes grave prow left libral
All denominations of this series are rarer than the prow left types, the fractions especially so.

The RRC 36/1 as comes from Geheimrat von Kaufmann coll, via a 1929 Hamburger sale. Richard von Kaufmann (29 March 1849 in Cologne; † 11 March 1908 in Berlin-Charlottenburg) was a German-Jewish political economist, art collector and patron, and Privy Councillor (Geheimer Regierungsrat) under Kaiser Wilhelm II.



Crawford 36/1 As Obv: hd Janus Rev: prow l, I. Provenance: NAC64 (17 May 2012) lot 912 JD coll. ex Leo Hamburger (27 May 1929) lot 358 (est. 120 RM) Geheimrat von Kaufmann coll.
Crawford 36/3a Triens Obv: hd Minerva l Rev: prow l, oooo. Provenance: Aes Rude Titano 49 (13 Jun.1992) lot 67
Crawford 36/4 Quadrans Obv: hd Hercules l Rev: prow l, ooo. Provenance: Schenk-Behrens Essen 56 (30 Nov. 1988) lot 116

 

Series: prow left semilibral, and with corn-ear

- 38/1 as is ex Reverend Edward Allen Sydenham collection, the author of "Aes Grave, a study of the cast coinages of Rome and central Italy" 1926, and of "The Roman Republican Coinage" 1952, edited by Hersh, Forrer and Haines after his 1948 death. And of course the joint author of RIC and the author of many other books.
- 38/2 is ex Sarti collection, a 19th century Italian collection dispersed by Sangiorgi in Rome in 1906, and is a plate coin illustration in Haeberlin's 1910 "Aes grave - das Schwergeld Roms und Mittelitaliens"
- 40/1a corn-ear quadrans is a rare military issue of T. Ocilius Crassus, governor of Sicily, 216BC; the type is often misidentified as an RRC 38 issue (no corn-ear) - actually RRC 38 quadrantes are even rarer



Crawford 38/1 As Obv: hd Janus Rev: prow l, I. Provenance: CNG24 (9 Dec.1992) lot 57 Bradbury Thurlow coll. ex CNG CNA 5 (9 Dec.1988) lot 221 ($800) ex Rodolfo Ratto 7th Feb.1928 lot 32 Sydenham coll.
Crawford 38/2 Semis Obv: hd Saturn l, S Rev: prow l, S. Provenance: Stack's (22 Apr.2009) lot 1233 Bruce Antonelli coll. ex Sangiorgi 110 (7 May 1906) lot 18 Sarti coll. (unillustrated) = Haeberlin Aes Grave pl.44,2 (this coin illustrated) noted in error as missing Sarti coll. but is Sarti 18 which has same weight 71.5 grams
Crawford 38/3 Triens Obv: hd Minerva L, oooo Rev: prow l, oooo. Provenance: central European aes grave collection before 2010 (similar to but not Vecchi ICC 95 = Thurlow 65 = Haeberlin plate coin in Vienna)
Crawford 40/1a Quadrans Obv: hd Hercules l, ooo below Rev: Prow l, corn-ear above, Provenance: NAC64 (17 May 2012) lot 919 JD coll ex Jean Elsen 70 (15 June 2002) lot 392

 

aes grave, post-semilibral, prow left and right and Luceria

some real rarities here:
- 41/5b prow right as as is much rarer than the prow left
- 41/8a quadrans which by module must be a post-semilibral type is an unrecorded variety with value mark behind the obverse head
- 43/1 Luceria cast as is extremely rare. When I bought this, the seller hadn't noticed the L mintmark before the prow. One doesn't expect to see a mintmark on an aes grave type



Crawford 41/5a As Obv: hd Janus Rev: prow l, I. Provenance: Aes Rude Titano 56 (12 Feb. 1994) lot 104
Crawford 41/5b As Obv: hd Janus Rev: Prow r. no visible value mark. Provenance: NAC61 (5th Oct.2011) lot 51 RBW coll. = RBW116 ex NAC9 (16th Apr.1996) lot 500 (CHF 475)
Crawford 41/8a Quadrans Obv: hd Hercules l, ooo behind head, unrecorded in ICC and exceptionally heavy Rev: prow l, ooo below. Provenance: NAC64 (17 May 2012) lot 929 JD coll before 2010
Crawford 43/1 As Obv: hd Janus Rev: prow r, I above, L before. Provenance: Ancient Imports Marc Breitsprecher 2006

 

series: VARO, PVR, OPEIMI, P.BLAS, VAL, TA, TVRD, anchor, ass, star, SAR

Some notable coins:
- the anonymous as RRC 197-198/B1a is actually an anonymous variety of RRC182-182 (butterfly, gryphon, wolf) types, McCabe group K2 see Essays Russo
- TA sextans RRC 192 is a denomination not in Crawford. See Russo in Essays Hersh
- note the three RRC194 anchor types which have value marks unusually above rather than before prow, see the single dot above on the (extremely rare) uncia for example. Presumably this was done to better display the anchor before prow, and it works - the anchors are all perfectly clear
- RRC 198 denarius is on a massive flan for the type

Details of the coin types and their provenances are listed below the Flickr image here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/48928517937/

 

A truly mind-boggling collection, Andrew. I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I spent hours going over your website (and this post) to identify four very low-grade Roman Republic asses I recently got off eBay (for $12, if that tells you anything). I thought about posting them here, but compared to your spectacular collection, it would be quite the buzz-kill. I'll wait for a less auspicious occasion to inflict them on the Coin Talk Community.

But I wanted to thank you for all the hard work and thought you put into your collection and your site. Beyond adding extensively to the available stock of knowledge, it made attributing my cruddy little collection far easier than I could've hoped, and a lot of fun as well. Keep up the good work.

P.S. Let me provide an example of how helpful your website was to me in my attribution efforts. One of my new ones is Crawford 180/1. On your site you had this bit, which was very, very helpful to me in my attribution efforts:

"...RRC 180 SAX and RRC 173 C.SAX bronzes are prone to confusion...On SAX the deck structure is always raised and table-shaped. On C.SAX there
is no raised deck structure, instead the line of the deck is interrupted by two dots, symbolising the deck structure."

 

Thank you Mike!

That SAX / C.SAX distinction can be really helpful.

SAX is much rarer in any denomination so well done. Innumerable cases where I've seen a C.SAX as (very common) classified as SAX because the C was off the edge or worn, but the deck structure sorts it out.

 

Thank you, Andrew. And now, to violate my pledge not to bring down the high class neighborhood of your thread with my ugly coins, here is my SAX, and an "enhanced" version of the reverse to show my interpretation of what I am seeing (corrections always welcome). One thing (the only thing) going for this coin is that casting sprue on the right - it is so sharp it could cut your finger!

Again, thank you for putting all that information out there for amateurs like me to burnish their uglies with correct attributions!





Roman Republic Æ As
(Cluvius) Saxula
(c. 169-158 B.C.)
Rome Mint
Laureate head of Janus, I above / Prow of galley right with raised, table-shaped deck structure, I before, SIX (ligature) above, ROMA below.
Crawford 180/1.
(29.57 grams / 32 mm)

"...RRC 180 SAX and RRC 173 C.SAX bronzes are prone to confusion...On SAX the deck structure is always raised and table-shaped. On C.SAX there is no raised deck structure, instead the line of the deck is interrupted by two dots, symbolising the deck structure."
Andrew McCabe website

 

series: NAT, C TAL, L.SAVF, P.SVLA, SAFRA, NATTA, L.ITI, C.IVNI C.F, mast & sail, L.SEMP PITIO, C.TER LVC, L.ATILI NOM, M.AVRELI COTA, P.PAETVS, TI.VETVR, SEX POM

Some notable coins:
- RRC 206/1 SAFRA denarius is the coin which I have owned for the longest time, I bought it from Spink in November 1989
- RRC 234/2 Titus Veturius and 235/3 Sextus Pompeius Fostulus quadrantes both have jugs on them; the Veturia accompanied by a strigil and the jug is held by a thing - this is a gymnasium coin; that on the Pompeius matches the jog behind head on the shepherd Fostulus, wolf and twins and birds and fig tree denarius type
- RRC 225/1 is from the Bourgey November 1913 Quadras y Ramon sale (1818-1894). I bought it retail off Bourgey where presumably it had lain untouched in their trays for more than 100 years
- RRC 210 Caius Junius denarius comes from a 1971 Stack's sale; along with quite a few coins in my collection it comes from the so-called Southern California or S.C. collection that was assembled (based on provenances) between the mid 1960s and late 1970s
- RRC 213 mast and sale (no associated silver) and RRC 209 Lucius Itius (no associated bronzes): It has been suggested by Mark Passehl that these might belong together, the mast and sail forming a sort of monogram of L.Itius as well as being what it looks like. Bright idea and knowing the ancient Romans probably right too.
- RRC 205/4 Publius Sulla triens has a provenance dating back to Cohen in 1857 and then to Babelon's book. I could try and explain why, but a picture is better:


remarkable! if anyone says line drawings are useless for identifying actual coins, show them this. I have three other Cohen 1857 coins (two certain one probable)


Details of the coin types and their provenances are listed below the Flickr image here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/48930943162/in/photostream/
My coin pictures and website are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/collections
http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/

 

Absolutely correct. And I learnt my trade by collecting exactly these sort of coins, and then when I'd spent 10 years studying them, passing them on to others through the usual channels. This is how to do it. My collection is intended to encourage not dishearten you. As said many times, my day job was as a mechanical engineer and my view is any salaried employee can over time form a superb collection in whatever niche they have chosen, so long as they work their coins like crazy.

 

I am always interested in how people collect - there is always something to learn. This collection is a stunning achievement- there is so much to learn here. I had no idea that there were so many different and beautiful Republican bronze issues. These go in my multi-volume loose leaf notebooks I keep of interesting photos of ancient coins and articles on ancient coins. A wonderful group!

 

Thanks Blake

There will be a lot more to come, I am about half way through. What's left includes the popular Imperatorial era where I have some pretty nice Julius Caesar portraits and some great rarities too. There'll be another intermission now, for possibly a week. Coins are not physically with me (and when they are, only in small batches)



In this thread, my endeavour has been to present coins as a collection and not as unconnected items. Displaying coins as a collection beside other coins, and with natural backgrounds rather than whited out, really helps give a "collection feel". I love all my coins but there are two aspects where my collection might have an edge over, or at least equal, other published collections
- quality of the provenances
- quality of the bronzes
The funny thing about those two aspects is they come cheap or free. Provenances need an instinct and then countless library hours, but I almost always buy coins absent provenance information. So it's cost-free. Bronzes … well they can be expensive but if you scour every possible venue they don't have to be. Whereas Julius Caesar portraits are always expensive, and thus less of an achievement.

"cheap or free" is a good motto.