I've just added this nice Trajan denarius. It was bequeathed to the seller, who was so nice to include the collector ticket. Does anyone recognize the ticket? ROMAN IMPERIAL, Traian. Denomination: AR Denarius, minted: Rome; 101-102 AD Obv: IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM; Head of Trajan, laureate, right Rev: P M TR P COS IIII P P: Victory, draped, standing right on prow, holding out wreath in right hand and palm in left Weight: 3.45g; Ø:18mm. Catalogue: RIC II 59. Provenance: Old French collector ticket "BCY" collection; acq.: 03-2021 Nice dark toning Here's the collector ticket, reading: TRAJAN 98, 117 --------------------- Tète laurier a DD R/Victoire de ... DR ..... une laureate et une palme c. 241 (?) 350 (My French is a bit rusty. Any additions or corrections appreciated!)
About the "c.241", it's the reference for Cohen 241. Maybe the "350" is the value of the coin in french francs ?
Thanks @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix. This would at least place the date of the ticket after Cohen, i.e. 1890s. Perhaps Belgian Francs? 350 French Francs seems high for a common denarius (though in nice condition)
The value of the french francs fluctuated a lot over the years. In 1950, 350 ff was worthing only 1 USD. In 1929, 350 ff = 14 USD...
These days Cohen's catalog is used everywhere in France as if nothing better exists (But not in French!!). I do not think the ticket is very old as it is not written in ink but with a ballpen. FF 350 in the early sixties was next to nothing, but in the seventies with a revaluated Franc, it would have been around $60 which was then a normal price for a Roman silver coin. The three letters on the reverse was probably the code for which amount the coin was bought. Find a word of ten letters in which there are no letters twice, and you have a simple code for 1-0 where the first and the last stand for 10. As the text from Cohen shows ' droite' is written with a final 'e' Frans
I do believe the word after Victoire is crown (une coronne). I had to get out my old petit Dictonnaire Larousse,36th Printing, 1963. It was new when I was in the 9th grade. Hasn't let me down since. Nice coin. I just picked up to Byz folles from a bud; Anastasius, both Constantinople mint. The Justinian was year 36. Have fun.
I do indeed. Seller in Portugul his late father and he dabbled in coins but the dad was half. I have many purchases with him and the tickets were most likely written by his dad. I will link one of mine. He had a lot of nice Greek Coins too. Of ourse, I may be mistaken tho. Dud I win anything ? Lol
I am completely astonished to learn that apparently there have been no new general catalogs of Roman coins published in French since Cohen! Especially given that there appear to be so many catalogs for individual emperors, and even for particular sub-categories of the coins of certain emperors (such as the small book on the Zoo coins of Gallienus).
I recently bought the latest issue of Cohen in eight volumes for about $100 a reprint from the original in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford!
