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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 8269042, member: 96898&quot;]Interesting thread. In the discussion about private collecting of antiquities, it is often overlooked that public collections and museums regularly both acquire and deaccession items. That means they accept donations, buy from, and sell to private collectors and dealers. This makes the distinction between private and institutional collections much less sharp than some of the advocates against private collecting suggest.</p><p><br /></p><p>Raising funds might be one reason for deaccessions, but often institutions also sell items or don&#039;t accept donations since they lack space or don&#039;t have enough staff to properly curate and conserve everything that is accumulating in their basements. When I was in grad school, one of my side gigs was helping to catalogue the coin collection of my university library. Fortunately, my institution had enough funding and a group of librarians with truly impressive curatorial skills, so it was to my knowledge never necessary to deaccession anything. Still, space and manpower were always scarce, and many of our holdings had come from other instutions that were in less lucky positions.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a couple of ex-museum coins myself. According to an old seller&#039;s (&quot;PMV Inc.&quot;) listing, this one once was owned by the Dorset County Museum in Britain. It must have been deaccessioned at some point.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1459290[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Trajan Decius, Roman Empire, AR antoninianus, 249–251 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG, bust of Trajan Decius, draped and radiate, r. Rev: PANNONIAE, the two Pannoniae standing, holding standards. 23mm, 4.14g. Ref: RIC IV,3 Trajan Decius 21b. Ex Warren Esty ([USER=44316]@Valentinian[/USER]); ex PMV Inc., &quot;Late Summer List&quot; 1982, lot 94; ex Dorset County Museum.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>These two coins came from the enormous collection of Otto Horn (1880–1945). His private collection was more or less confiscated by the Eastern German communist regime after World War II and spent the next 65 years in the public Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden. Afterwards, it was given back to the collector&#039;s legal heir, a charity devoted to supporting cultural and social projects in Horn&#039;s hometown of Meissen. The charity sold some 10.000 historically important pieces to the Staatliche Kunstsammlung, the rest went on the private market to raise funds. Both of my coins came with their museum tags from Dresden:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1459293[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">County of Waldeck, under Franz III, Wilhelm Ernst, Christian, and Volrad, ½ Batzen, 1595 AD, Niederwildung mint. Obv: FRA. WE. C W. [C. I. WAL], helmeted shield with eight-rayed star; below, moneyer’s mark of Kaspar Huxer: crossed hooks and arrow. Rev: RVDOL. II. IM. AVG. P [.F. DEC]; 9-5; imperial orb with value mark Z. 19mm, 0.98g. Ref: Slg. Hennig 62; Grönegreß 1986, 292. Ex Ernst Otto Horn (1880–1945) collection; ex Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (1945–2010). </font></p><p><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">[ATTACH=full]1459291[/ATTACH] </font></p><p><font size="3">Imperial City of Cologne, civic issue, AR bracteate heller, 1474–1493 AD, Cologne mint. Obv: civic coat of arms: three crowns above five flames. Rev: negative design (bracteate). 14.5mm, 0.31g. Ref: Noss 31. Ex Ernst Otto Horn (1880–1945) collection; ; ex Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (1945–2010).</font></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1459292[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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