Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum, but I was hoping to get your opinions on a potential provenance. I was thinking that perhaps my Crawford 116/1a is from the Bonazzi collection (Rodolfo Ratto, 23 January 1924, Lot 276). Comparing to a plaster cast is always tricky but the reverses look like a match, I'm less certain about the obverse.
Yes, I think it is. The reverse is a slam dunk with the indents at 4h and 8h. The obverse seems a bit off, but I think I see the edge chipping on the right hand side. I say take it as a match and congratulations.
So glad to have another ancient poster to this already great site... especially another RR collector! Those darn Roman's always trampling things. Somebody tell that doggie to get out the way And it wasn't just pets, they even liked to trample other cultures and their shields Just despicable
I actually have no doubt about the obverse. If you compare all the way around, they match point by point.
Unquestionably a match. As Carthago noted, the "indents" at 4h and 8h are decisive. (He's nicer than I am; I was gonna term them "nicks" before I saw his post, lol.) It's an exceptional example of a very tough issue, even without the great provenance. Congratulations! Phil Davis
As best I can tell they are the same coin but photographed at slightly different angles which I think is accounting for some of the uncertainty. See below for a stacked animation. Congratulations on such a fantastic research find. Also welcome to CT!
I focus more on finding lost provenances for Greek coins, but I don’t see anything that would eliminate your coin as a match. I assume the weight is close. I agree about the obverse - it would be nice to see the edge flaw at 3:00, but the reverse looks like an exact match. Comparisons with casts is tough for edges. It also nice if you know of any subsequent sales for more images to check I use: exact die match, weight, diameter, die alignment Flan - size, shape, flaws Condition - wear, scrapes, scratches Curtismo - excellent overlay animation. I do some thing similar by making the images partially transparent (usually 60%), but not nearly as cool as your animation
I don't know about the rest of you, but I am impatiently awaiting an easy technical solution to this process. If the PRC police can now track the entire population of many of their cities through facial recognition software that can match faces with high accuracy in a variety of different angles, distances and lighting conditions, someone should be able to turn this technology from evil and use it for the good of us collectors and researchers for simple die matching. SC
Jonas Flueck uses facial recognition technology at ex-Numis.com to find coin provenances. I have submitted 5-6 images of my coins that looked like they should have an old pedigree that I couldn’t locate for myself and he did find one in a M&M FPL from the 1940s: Kyrene AR didrachm 6.84 gm 20 mm O: laureate head Apollo right R: silphum plant, jerboa lower right BMC 262c(no image) One of the first Kyrenaika coins I acquired. What was so interesting is the M&M coin image was before horn silver had been removed. Apparently, the flan shape really helps make a match. Of course, the system is proprietary due to the large amount of resources and time to develop the database.
I think it will be a while before there is a “perfect” system. Many old plates, particularly those that feature plaster casts of coins, require a bit of “imagination” I doubt a computer can provide at this stage. For example, edge splits may be missing, images may have been taken at an angle that makes centering appear slightly different, an edge shift on a beaded border may appear oddly on a cast etc. Ex-numis is an excellent place to start and has found some incredible pedigrees for me, but at this stage it is certainly no substitute for manual research
