Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="SwK, post: 2326056, member: 22309"]Every Bronze we have is a ‘love at first site & a love of Art and History’ [ATTACH=full]470845[/ATTACH] Divus Verus. Sestertius after 169, 30.14 g. DIVVS – VERVS Bare head r. Rev. CONSECRATIO S – C  Four tiers funeral pyre surmounted by facing quadriga on top.C 59. A spectacular portrait of fine style struck in high relief on an exceptionally large flan being an untouched coin with olive-green patina. [Pecunia non olet] "Money has no odor" the famous expression of the Roman writer Gaius Suetonius (AD 69 and lived until about AD 140) It is an accepted premise that high quality Imperial Roman bronzes are rare. For many years there has been fewer quality pieces coming to the market to meet a growing demand each year including 2015. According to<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suetonius" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suetonius" rel="nofollow">Suetonius</a>in his De vita Caesarum (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars), written in the first century<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_Era" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_Era" rel="nofollow">CE</a>, the emperor Augustus*sometimes presented old and exotic coins to friends and courtiers during festivals and other special occasions. This in itself shows that Augustus collected the coins for their aesthetic value.  And he did not just stick to coins featuring Caesars – he gave out coins of all kinds, including old pieces featuring ancient kings, and other foreign currencies. Many of our Roman Bronze Coins were collected over a period of over 30 years, they were studied and even the material the coins were made from. The single collecting discipline over a long period was to build a collection of natural bronze coins of the Roman Empire, a collection of untouched ‘natural coins’ with their original patina. The attraction was the artistic superiority of bronzes and the rarity of finding a specific quality. This discipline demanded that one had to sit alongside restorers to enable to understand what is being done to coins at the present time to meet the requirement of a growing market. The current dearth of high quality material available in the market has led to an increasing number of doctored coins in an attempt to satisfy the pent up demand. This is not a new problem as from the early 1900’s many bronzes were found in hoards and to make them interesting to the collectors they were cleaned, tooled, smoothed and given a patina. The reward of the work done on the coin was to highlight the portrait so as to be more attractive to the collector. More recently over the past 20 or 30 years, some bronze coins have been built up using epoxy resin, though all this can only be seen under a microscope. Many works of Art are restored as a matter of course and if done carefully, the art is preserved for posterity. Should the same thing apply to coins? Obviously opinions will differ, but a clear majority of people now like coins to be unmodified by human interference. Today, numismatics is entering a period when the finest bronze coins such as Sestertii & Dupondius and other Bronzes should be untouched and in their original state of creation, these now being the most sought after. Untouched meaning that the coin may be washed in warm water but the patina should not be disturbed. Some of the existing dealers in 2016 who understand Roman Bronzes are Auction Houses as NOMOS-ZURICH, NAC-ZURICH, Ed Waddell in Frederick-USA. M. Bendenoun –Tradart, CNG, Kunker, Lanz. There are also a number of names from post war II Europe such as Leo Mildenberg, Roberto Russo, John Pett, Ratto, Baronovsky, Sternberg and others, such names were and still are my mentors including by Dr. Alan Walker Nomos and ex Leu today. * <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus</a> RegardsJeff 1000'S OF STORIES TO BE TOLD ABOUT THE COLLECTOR AND OR THE COIN, LET EVERYONE IN OUR GREAT HOBBY UNDERSTAND YOUR STORY[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches