2020 best provenances

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Andrew McCabe, Dec 30, 2020.

  1. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    My acquisitions:
    (de-allergy warning: I removed the fruit and replaced with a coin I received in January 2020, #10)

    1. Kölner Münz-kabinett 32 (4 May 1982) ex Dorotheum Apostolo Zeno 1669-1750 coll. (6 June 1956) lot 2804. Venetian librettist and humanist. Imperial poet laureate and curator of coin collection of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. Zeno sold his collection to the Abbey of St. Florian in Austria in 1747 where they remained until 1955.
    1747.jpg

    2. Naville Ars Classica XVII lot 675 (rev. photo) Sir Arthur J. Evans coll. (CHF 190) purchased from an old French coll. with original Ars Classica XVII ticket, ex Bourgey Etienne Récamier coll. (2 Mar. 1925) lot 3. Etienne Récamier 1834-1873, assembled much of his Roman coll. from site finds and hoards in Lyon area between 1850 and 1870
    1873.jpg

    3. Purchased from A.Riechmann of Halle on 17th January 1912, with original envelope
    1912.jpg

    4. Ciani coll. Général de GrandPrey (20 Feb. 1935) lot 280 ex Clement Platt, 19 May 1921, lot 133
    1921.jpg

    5. Auctiones 3 (4 Dec. 1973) lot 279 ex Cahn-Hess 83 (17 July 1933) lot 1421 Ernst Justus Haeberlin coll. (†1925) = Banti VIBIA 21/4
    1925.jpg

    6. R.Ratto, Martini coll. (Feb.24 1930) lot 1351 (est. CHF 600) ex R.Ratto Morcom & Hands colls, (8 Feb. 1928) lot 1674 (CHF 350) = Buttrey, Triumviral Portrait Gold, ANS NNM 137, 1956, pl.6, 48.13 (this coin)
    1928.jpg

    7. Schulman Vault coll. ex Hess-Leu 49 (27 Apr. 1971) lot 320 (CHF 2600) ex Adolph Hess 211 (9 May 1932) lot 1865 (est.CHF60) Percy Webb coll. (1856-1937; author of RIC.V and specialist in Carausius)
    1933.jpg

    8. NFA-Leu Garrett III (29 Mar 1985) Lot 384 (part) Johns Hopkins University coll. and Garrett Collection (1872-1942), purchased when Garrett was United States Ambassador to Italy 1929-1933
    1934.jpg

    9. UBS 78 (collection formed around 1950) lot 1163 purchased from Clement Platt before 1952
    1951.jpg

    10. Glendininig’s V. J. E. Ryan coll. (2 Apr. 1952) lot 1952 = FFC 45 (this coin)
    ryan.jpg
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
    TIF, Curtisimo, AnYangMan and 42 others like this.
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

  4. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    The color of #1 strikes me as light if the coin has not been cleaned for centuries. Is there anything known about what, perhaps, the Abbey of St. Florian did to 'maintain' the collection or prepare it for sale?
     
    DonnaML and rrdenarius like this.
  5. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    Many of the Zeno coins are relatively bright; I have several others, so indeed yes they may have been cleaned 20th century. Possibly by the German soldiers who occupied the Abbey between 1938 and 1945 which was the ultimate cause of the collection being sold after the war by a presumably much diminished congretation on their return. This particular coin was holed likely in ancient times, and likely vigorously cleaned and plugged before Zeno bought it around 1700. So it may be vestiges of the coin being cleaned to brightness three hundred years ago, or may be 20th century cleaning.

    Note that the coin is brass (orichalcum) not bronze, so another reason for brightness
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
    Curtisimo, ominus1 and DonnaML like this.
  6. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

  7. AncientJoe

    AncientJoe Well-Known Member

    The portrait on your anepigraphic #10 makes it my favorite of your group.

    It's been an uncommonly good year for Apostolo Zeno, with four forum members adding examples (Terence Cheesman, Carthago, and my Vespasian from earlier this year). Zeno's collection was large but having four members here acquire a coin in the same year from the same collection (which wasn't sold within the year) probably occurs very infrequently.
     
    Curtisimo, DonnaML, Di Nomos and 3 others like this.
  8. IMP Shogun

    IMP Shogun Well-Known Member

    Excellent coins, your pictures are amazing.
     
  9. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..really kool coins & provenance man! :)
     
  10. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    Fascinating coins & provenance - thanks for sharing!
     
  11. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    Most of these coins were sold without known provenances including the Zeno; the two aurei had the most recent provenances known when bought (1934 and 1956 respectively) but I quickly found the older ones (1873 and 1928). Both were retail purchases with no recent auction provenances. I never hesitate in buying at retail, good coins with good antique provenances and not having appeared at a recent auction, even if the headline price is high. The Haeberlin and General Grandprey were also bought without provenance known.

    These are typical of what I collect nowadays. Dings and wear but rare coins with amazing collecting history. I will touch no coins (in silver gold or aes grave) that have only 21st century provenances. I will accept struck bronzes with modern provenances because they were generally unillustrated in older catalogues.
     
    Curtisimo, Ed Snible and AncientJoe like this.
  12. Romancollector

    Romancollector Well-Known Member

    Beautiful coins with fantastic provenances @Andrew McCabe !!! As AncientJoe already pointed out, the portrait on the Octavian denarius is stunning!

    I really like the uncia depicting Sol. I'm assuming it replaced the example auctioned off in Roma's e-sale 77. I wanted that coin, but it went for a bit higher than I had anticipated. In any case, I was happy to score the denarius of L. Marcius Philippus which was also from your collection!
     
    DonnaML likes this.
  13. Cicero12

    Cicero12 Well-Known Member

    Beautiful coins all. I particularly like 4 and 7. Wonderful job digging up the pedigrees as well!
     
    DonnaML likes this.
  14. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D REAL nice!
    Congrats
    John
     
  15. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    Yes it replaced the Roma E77 uncia which was also excellent but the General Grandprey coin has a slightly better obverse and a much better provenance. Grandprey was a first world war French General
     
    Romancollector likes this.
  16. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I'm in awe at all of these . The oldest known provenances for any of my ancient coins date back only to the 1970s, except for one coin from the Dattari Collection.
     
    Andrew McCabe likes this.
  17. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    Dattari is great

    You collect what you try to collect. If you like big flans you end up with a collection on untypically big flans. If you like sharp coins then you'll end up with a lot of ex hoard coins. If you like old collectors and old provenances then you end with a collection like mine.
     
    Curtisimo and DonnaML like this.
  18. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member


    Did all those Republican coins on your website also have old provenances, or was avoiding 21st-century provenances not your policy when you bought them?

    I do have one siliqua from the East Harptree Hoard, from 1887, but I don't know if you count that kind of history as a provenance or as something different. It's not as if I can trace the chain of title, link by link, but it came from a reputable dealer and I very much doubt he would make something like that up.

    Sometimes I think that some of my really nice Roman Republican denarii with "cabinet toning" might have old provenances waiting to be discovered. And that someday image recognition technology for coins might reach a point, and might have a large enough database for comparison purposes, to be really useful. But it seems to me that facial recognition technology is more advanced. And that it's easier for coins than for faces to be close but not identical, as with die matches.
     
  19. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    East Haptree Hoard 1887 is the very best kind of provenance

    My focus shifted over the years. The RBW sale 2011 2012 was when I became conscious of the historic interest in provenance. Regulatory changes in many countries made me realise that in the very long term - 30 years ahead - itll probably only be acceptable to collect coins with good documented provenances. Other collectors prefer condition as the prime target and really dont care about who owned their cojns before them. I appreciate there are different interests, and the market can take care of that. So I began to turn over my collection to focus on provenance about 2015.

    Yes there are probably many interesting provenances among your toned coins. But not guaranteed.
     
    Ed Snible and DonnaML like this.
  20. Terence Cheesman

    Terence Cheesman Well-Known Member

    Andrew you have put together a very impressive group of coins. I too like pedigreed coins though if the truth be known over half of my remaining collection do not have pedigrees older than the twenty first century. Last year I acquired a Prince Waldeck coin and this year the Apostolo Zeno, Arthur Evans as well as a Dattarri coin. Despite my limited resources I do enjoy the hunt and have been fortunate to find coins that have had "hidden" pedigrees. However perhaps my favorite is still the Apostolo Zeno and Biaggi Collection Gallienus reduced Aureus Photo by W. Hansen gallienusav1.jpg When I found it it was not listed as being an Zeno coin What initially attracted me was that it was plated in Gobl MIR 44 670b I thought for one of these coins it was pleasant and being in an E Auction I figured should not be that pricy. It was only when I continued with my research did I discover the connection with Apostolo Zeno. In fact it was only after I acquired the coin did I find out who he was.
     
    Curtis, Curtisimo, eparch and 5 others like this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page