Big batch of AUREII withdrawn from CNG

Andrew McCabe · Sep 13, 2021

Nothing beats a great provenance for guarding against modern shenanigans:

Naville Ars Classica XVII lot 675 (rev. only 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 = Bourgey, La Republique Romaine, 1988, p.167 this coin illustrated

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)

Kampmann & Platt 26 Nov. 1975 lot 141 (FF 10,000 on FF 3,000 est) ex Vinchon & Ciani (6 May 1955) lot 262 (est. 45,000 FF)

NAC72 (17 May 2013) lot 1362 ex Christies, Lord Astor of Hever coll. (28 May 1963) lot 1, John Jacob Astor coll. (1886-1971) 1908 Olympic gold medallist, owner The Times newspaper, MP for Dover 1922-1945

old collections aren't a guard against holes but at least one has a few hundred years to notice them, and can embrace as part of the coin's history, such as this:

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.