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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8242095, member: 128351&quot;]You could suspect a hoard if the coins were completely unknown and unpublished ones, and all of a sudden not one but several specimens surfaced in public auctions. Or if the coins had been extremely rare and sought after for centuries, and suddenly several specimens appear in auctions with no provenance (or vague and unverifiable ones).</p><p><br /></p><p>It is the case, for example, with Lihyan drachms. These imitations of Athenian coins from Arabia, bearing a clear conspicuous Dadanitic letter on Athena&#039;s cheek, were completely unknown until 2018. Not a single one in a museum or a public catalogued collection, not a single one on the market, but since 2018 some 25 specimens have been auctioned by different houses. None has a pedigree or a real provenance (a vague provenance nobody could verify does not count). It is very likely that they are from a hoard being dispersed.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1450868[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">Arabian imitation of an Athenian coin, with a Dadanitic letter <i>Dhal </i>on Athena&#039;s cheek. Leu Web Auction 15, 860. AR 13 mm, 2.11 g. 4th c. BC.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>It is also the case with Decadrachms of Alexander. Before 2015, 15 or 17 specimens only were known, 8 of which had been traced by Martin Price from a large hoard found in Iraq in 1973. In 2015, suddenly, new unrecorded specimens started to surface on the market, more and more numerous: 1 in 2015, 1 in 2016, 5 in 2017, 10 in 2018... None with a provenance that could be verified. It is likely that these Alexander decadrachms came from a hoard found c. 2015, probably in Gaza because in 2017 the Israeli police seized 4 other specimens someone tried to smuggle into Israel out of the Gaza strip.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the case of the Victorinus antoniniani with the tiny leaf, it is less clear. Thousands of Victorinus antoniniani are in collections, in museum and museum deposits, in hoards still waiting to be published because they are enormous. The leaf is a small detail of the reverse type that could have been unnoticed by many, so I don&#039;t know if one can say there are only 3 specimens known. It would be interesting to check precisely published hoards containing Victorinus &quot;Invictus&quot; antoniniani. I have one, but it does not have the tiny leaf...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1450869[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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