1. I write to ask if someone would be good enough to look in Savio's book on Dattari's collection and let me know if the coin photographed below really does come from the Dattari collection. 2. Way back in January 1980 I purchased it from one of Alex Malloy's sales, in which it was described as "ex Dattari collection." 3. I know it's a hemidrachm (33mm, 11.77g) of Aelius, and is referenced as Dattari 2078. But I don't know if attribution to the actual Dattari collection is correct. Hopefully there is some evidence in the book that will be helpful. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. D
Keep in mind that it might be an Ex Dattari coin and not be published in Dattari Salvio. That is, if it does not appear it is not a plate coin but that does not mean it was not part of his collection.
It can be difficult to judge matches because the D-S plates are photos of pencil rubbings, but I do not see a match for a drachm or for a hemidrachm. There is only one plate of Aelius coins in D-S in the main portion of the book and there are no Aelius coins in the supplement. The size-weight mismatch of the OP coin is dramatic. I've seen a number of mismatches but none quite so disparate. The diameter is of a drachm but the weight is of a hemidrachm. I wonder what the intended denomination was when this coin circulated. Could this be a very porous/leached drachm? I don't know. There is at least one other explanation (the F word), but it would be almost impossible to say by these photos alone. I have a purported ex-RBW coin that I haven't found in other sales. It makes me uncomfortable (the unsupported pedigree-- not the coin ). How many times have I seen copy & paste errors... how many times have I propagated a copy/paste error ? However, D-S shows ~13,000 coins and at its peak, Dattari's collection contained ~20,000 Roman coins so it is certainly possible to have an ex-Dattari non-plate coin. Without diagnostic ephemera (BCD's handwritten tags and cut-out Polaroids come to mind), how do we keep people from making up pedigrees in such a case? I don't know. I guess to be certain you'd have to be able to track prior sales back to Dattari or, as a somewhat less certain avenue, a credible source, such as a dealer who was known to have bought a batch of Dattari's coins.
