It has been a while since I made my last post here! I have shown only two of the coins I have bought so far this year. Life has kept me busy and while the collecting certainly went on in full force, I have had less time to share some of my acquisitions on this wonderful forum. Anyhow, my most recent acquisition from the Roma E-sale certainly deserves to be posted here. Besides the two main focus-areas of ancient China and medieval Holland, the goal of my rather broadly-orientated collection is to capture a snapshot of the breadth and diversity of the numismatic record; from the most obscure central Asian kingdoms to the Axumites in northern Africa. One of those cultures that needed representing were the Etruscans. I had been looking for a decent example for a while, initially having fallen for the 20 asses with Medusa, but when this popped up during a holiday to Greece, I knew I had to bid. On the auction day itself, while hiking through the valleys of Rhodes, the word came; my bid stuck and I had won the coin! Etruria, Populonia AR 10 Asses. Circa 300-250 BC. Laureate male head left, slightly bearded; [X] behind / Blank. EC I, 70.207 (O3, this coin); HN Italy 168. 4.22g, 19mm. Good Very Fine; with the usual die-break for the issue, attractive old cabinet tone. And yeah, that certainly is no small die-break. In combination with the die-rust on the bust (Aplu?), the wonderful toning and flow lines, it gives the coin a very peculiar yet attractive appearance. I have had @posnerfan_48 describe it as feeling like he was on a bad acid-trip Moreover, it is the provenance that truly had me sold on this piece. Does anybody here own Etruscan Coinage, part 1 by Vecchi? This coin is from his collection and should be published there under 70.207 (although an old tag that came with it says 70.268?). If anyone would be able to help that would be fantastic! Before that the coin appeared in a 2016 Baldwin’s sale as well as a 1958 Schulman auction in NY. I still frequently buy coins from the auction house in Amsterdam founded by his descendants! For me the most important thing however was the ex. Lord Colin Renfrew collection (62c). Renfrew is one of the more influential archaeologists of the past 5 or so decades, a proponent of processual archaeology and is a name almost all archaeologists are familiar with. Every first-year archaeology student, at least here on this side of the pond, starts off their academic career with purchasing a copy of Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, authored by him and Paul Bahn. Throughout our courses we had to treat it like a bible! Now that my studies are drawing to a close, I figured including a coin formerly his in my collection is a fitting tribute to the many hours sleeplessly spent pouring over Renfrew & Bahn for next day’s exam! I know there are plenty of their fans around here, so please post all your wonderful coins from Etruria below! (Looking at you @Alegandron …)
LOL, We are COIN-BROTHERs of that die! Etruria Populonia 211-206 BC AR 10 As 20mm 4.21g die brk Lr Male Hd L - Blank I have Etruria - Vecchi 1, but I have to dig it out of storage...
LOL, I have ALWAYS been confused by this rating for my coin... Etruria Populonia 3rd C BCE AR 20 As 8.1g Metus Blank HN 152 Maybe they meant Strike and Surface for the REVERSE?
Wow, give those coins some iodine, stat! (for their huge goiters) Cool coins, guys. A very specific Etrurian coin is on my wish list. Likely to always remain there (not going to say which one because I don't need more competition!). You can probably figure it out anyway. I'm no grader but the strike and surface grades look about right to me, perhaps with a "for the type" unspoken. Don't they all have die breaks, and isn't the die break on your gorgon rather tame "for the type"?
Nice matching coins, and great provenance, @AnYangMan. I have none to show, I keep hoping that they will go for 1/2 price given one side is blank. So far that logic hasn't been rewarded at auction.
Yeah, I was having some fun due TO the die break. There are several of these out there with this same break, and several that I have seen of the 10 Asses with that Goiter Die Break, too. BUT, there ARE some of the 20 Asses and 10 Asses WITHOUT the "evil-eye" die break, and the "out-of-control Goiter Attack". I am not sure there were a lot minted of any of these, so there were probably few dies. Hence, seeing "several" with the die breaks as a proportion of total 10 and 20 Asses that are out there. Here is one that I enjoy... Etruria 3rd C BCE AE 18mm 4.76g Hd African r Elephant r letter below SNG Cop 48 HNI 69 SNG Paris 138-140 SNG Morcom 44 R
These are hard to find, as they were very small, and were probably dropped randomly and not put into a savings hoard. Etruria Populonia AR 1 As 0.60g 10.0mm after 211 BCE Male Head Left - Plain Rev Vecchi 3 68-70 HN Italy 181 R
Great score! As a generalist I appreciate the collecting goal you satisfied with this one. Great toning too! I picked up a rare one cheap recently, also from Roma. I wanted the earliest I could afford, when the Etruscans were still independent from Rome. Here's what I got: Etruria, Populonia AR Unit. Male head right, I before / Blank. Cf. EC I, 16; HN Italy 122; Sambon 79. 0.63g, 11mm. Roma attributed it to the 4th century, but I think this is the earlier (Euboic) weight standard for Populonia (close to ~0.9g without the chip?) and so the coin would be early 4th century or even late 5th century BCE. The mark of value as "1 as" supports an earlier date of issue as well. The depiction looks like Tinia to me, their sky-god of Indo-European origin.
Now that’s what I call a coin that’s beautiful fully on its own terms. Seriously, though, great catch, I love it! Only one Etruscan here. ETRURIA, Populonia AR 20 Asses. 8.55g, 20.5mm. ETRURIA, Populonia, 3rd century BC. EC Group XII, Series 52; HN Italy 142. O: Diademed facing head of Metus as Gorgoneion; X:X (mark of value) below. R: Blank.
I have a coin with the same provenance but mine has a provenance problem. The coin comes from the same auction, Baldwin 98, and was lot 551. The provenance was Vecchi, Etruscan Coinage, Part I 52.126 (1219) (O20, this coin), yet the picture doesn't match mine nor does the weight. This upset me greatly so I cross-referenced Baldwin's catalog 20-As pieces with Vecchi and several had that problem. I wrote to the Baldwin's cataloger. He thinks his catalog is the correct one. Vecchi seemed uncertain which catalog was correct. Mine also came out of Kreisberg & Schulman, New York, 25-26 January 1957 ("Adolphe Menjou collection") and was lot 2765/6 (part). The group lot unphotographed and unweighed. Although the catalog is called "Adolphe Menjou collection" it is believed the US coins were Menjou's, and the ancients were not. Menjou was a character actor and "the best-dressed man in America". If you look carefully you can see that mine is a partial brockage.
I take it back. The bit that looks like a beard on my coin appears instead to be a die break... those Eruscans and their broken dies! Here's what it's supposed to look like: And here's another example with the die break: I found these images at the website of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Florence), a resource I wasn't previously aware of. They have quite a nice catalogue of Etruscan coins, worth a look. (I'm thinking the coin @TIF wants is the one pictured at the top...)
I always REALLY enjoyed your coin, Ed! Just a nice version. Each time you you post yours with the provenance, I always hear this... Etruria or Umbria Aes Grave 3rd C BCE Sextans 23mm 25.15g Club- 2 Dots HN 54 Vecchi-Th 172
Sometime, I plan to push back in the Etrurian timeline to capture earlier versions. Tough enough to find reasonably priced Etrurians, let alone compiling a nice cross-section of their coinage. When you move into the smaller denoms with a reasonable finish/strike/etc., it can get a bit expensive. Congrats capturing this!!! great job! Looking forward to YOU expanding your collection!
