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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;arnoldoe, post: 3103316, member: 72712&quot;]I think the oldest known provenance is this collection.. Identified by the silver eagle that they counter-marked on the coins..</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cngcoins.com/photos/big/2710078.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>from CNG (not my coin)</p><p><font size="6"><b>&quot;From the Gonzaga/Este Collection</b></font></p><p><b>271, Lot: 78.</b> Estimate $1000.</p><p>Sold for $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Vespasian. </b>AD 69-79. Æ Quadrans (15mm, 2.19 g, 3h). Rome mint. Struck AD 77-78. IMP VESP AVG COS VIII, winged caduceus between crossed cornucopias / S C within laurel wreath; below SC, inlaid silver Gonzaga countermark in the form of an eagle in an oval field . RIC II 1017; BMCRE 741; BN 911. VF, dark green-brown patina. An important and historical collectible.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Purchased privately from Classical Numismatic Group; Fürsten d&#039;Este Collection.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>The silver eagle collector’s mark found on the obverse of this and a number of other Roman imperial coins has generated much speculation regarding its owner. Originating with Cavedoni (<i>Atti e Memorie Accademia di Scienze, Lettere, ed Arti</i> [1825]), who based his assumptions on an earlier statement of Maffei and the vague assertion of Eckhel, this mark was assigned to the d&#039;Este family, a wealthy and powerful Renaissance family from the Emilia-Romana region of Italy, whose badge included an eagle. Such an attribution contradicted earlier numismatists, including Spanheim (<i>Dissertationes de praestantia et usu Numismatum antiquorum</i> [1717]), who asserted it was the mark of the Gonzagas, the rulers of Mantua, a city with an important ancient Roman connection (it had been the poet Vergil&#039;s birthplace). In 1433, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund granted Gian Francesco Gonzaga (1395-1444), the first Marquis, with the privilege of new coat-of-arms, which contained an imperial eagle badge. This device was included on the town&#039;s silver coinage for the next two centuries.</p><p><br /></p><p>Simonetta and Riva (<i>QT</i> VIII [1979]) revisited the controversy, concluding the mark was that of the Gonzaga family. Such a mark served to inventory the piece to their collection, which, from the extant inventory, included a number of important Roman coins. Beginning in 1628, these coins were dispersed in order to fund the family&#039;s political and territorial ambitions.</p><p><br /></p><p>In their follow-up article (<i>QT</i> XII [1983]), Simonetta and Riva presented a heretofore unknown 1653-1654 French narrative (<i>Voyage d&#039;Italie curieux et nouveau</i> [Lyons, 1681]), as further evidence of the Gonzaga connection. Writing of his visit to Mantua, the author, Jean Huguetan, speaks of the coin collection having already been dispersed; these coins, however, can be recognized &quot;by a small eagle with which they have been stamped (<i>à une petite aigle dont on les avoit marquées</i>). This statement supports Spanheim&#039;s later one regarding similar coins (<i>ex insculpta in iis, Gonzagarum insigni, Aquila</i>) in the possession of the d&#039;Este dukes of Modena. While the d&#039;Este had since married into the Gonzaga and had acquired specimens in early dispersal of the Mantuan collection, they have no specific association with this collector’s mark.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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