Featured Historic Collections Thread: Dr. Walter Neussel Collection

Introduction

We often say on the forum that we are just temporary custodians of our collections and that someday we will pass them along to future generations of collectors. Many of the coins in our collections, however, have already spent many decades (or more!) in the collections of the past. Sometimes we know nothing of the history of our coins and sometimes we have little more than a name of a past collection from sale listings or old tags. Since it can often be hard to find information on these previous collections and collectors I thought I would start a series of threads that highlight some of my own research as I make progress toward learning more about the old collections that some of my coins once resided in.

In this thread I would like to highlight the Dr. Walter Neussel Collection.

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Dr. Walter Neussel Collection

My notes on the collection

• The collection was assembled in Germany starting in the mid-1950s and many of the coins in it were purchased from venues in central Europe. The bulk of the collection was sold in 2017 which means that the collection spans a period of about 63 years.
• The core collection seems to consist exclusively of Roman coins.
• Most of the coins in the collection have a documented provenance with many of them quite old.
• The collection seems to be very deliberately compiled. Many coins in the collection I have seen are interesting in very subtle ways that show the collector(s) had a very discerning eye.
• A large portion of the collection was sold in November 2017 in Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. Auktion 420.

I was having trouble finding anything about this collection or the collector online and so I reached out to Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. A representative for the auction house very kindly sent me a biography that was compiled for the auction back in 2017. Since the article was in German I asked for permission to translate it into English and post it here on the forum. I was granted permission to do so and I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. for the help they provided me in my research. Below is my translation of the biography compiled by Dr. Busso Pues Nachf.

An article on the beauty and artistic design of Roman coins was published in the magazine "Kristall" in 1954. Inspired by this article, Dr. Walter Neussel senior and, immediately afterwards, his sons* Hans (aged 16 years) and Walter (aged 13 years) began to build their own collection of Roman coins.

Naturally, the sons' sums, saved from small amounts of pocket money, did not initially make it possible to buy splendid specimens, however, for DM 0.50 to DM 1.0** they were able to acquire a reasonably nice sestertius from the time of the Adoptive Emperors. It was only after Dr. Hans Neussel and Dr. Walter Neussel junior had established themselves professionally that they could afford better pieces. The first purchases were made mostly from the company Julius Jenke in Munich, then also from auctions of the companies Kress, Hirsch, Peus and Button. In the early sixties, beautiful and inexpensive Roman and Alexandrian coins were available mainly from various dealers in Paris. Hans began early on to put emphasis on selecting coins of good preservation for his collection. Often, by careful examination of lots, rare pieces that went unrecognized by other collectors could be added to the collection. In this way, Hans eventually owned more than 15,000 Roman coins, which included a large number of bought-in lot coins. In terms of value, the sons' collections did not initially match their father's. After the death of Dr. Walter Neussel senior, his sons Hans and Walter shared their father’s collection between them.

Double and less well-preserved coins from the beginning of the collector's activity were retired, and the quality level of the two collections was steadily improved. Shortly before the death of Hans (on Feb. 19, 1993), Walter acquired his entire collection and eventually reduced the total stock significantly. However, it was not only beautiful specimens that were selected for inclusion in the definitive collection because very rare and interesting pieces in less good condition were also included.

On account of their lower value, under-appreciated Antoniniani of the third century, provincials (especially Alexandrian coins) as well as small bronzes of the 4th century were purchased from dealers and consciously and gladly integrated into the collections of all the collectors, since the subjects of these coins were often very appealing.

Since the sons of the current collection owner have no particular interest in continuing their father's collecting activity, this outstanding and self-contained collection of Roman coins will be completely auctioned at the direction of Dr. Walter Neussel during his lifetime.



The Dr. Neussel Collection, which spans more than 60 years of collecting activity, provides a comprehensive overview of Roman coinage from the early republic (including early cast) to the 5th century. Anyone acquiring one or more coins from this collection will be pleased to share in this private collection, built with much love and numismatic knowledge.

Dr. Walter Neussel (junior) was chief physician of the Department of Anesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Wittlich and initiator as well as senior physician of the Wittlich Rescue Center, the first in a rural area worldwide (a rescue center is an institution that also provides a rescue helicopter and holds an ambulance). He was director of the "CTT Institute for innovative and environmentally friendly technology in hospitals and rescue services" and is the bearer of the Federal Cross of Honor in Gold and the Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the field of numismatics, Dr. Neussel was the creator of the Experimental Numismatics Working Group ", which has been running successfully for more than 10 years. The current focus of his work is the sponsorship association of the Peter Singer Prize for Strategies to Reduce the Suffering of Animals (PSP). Dr. Neussel is the initiator and first chairman of the PSP.

*the sons became interested in collecting after holding the first Roman coins bought by their father in 1954 from Jenke in Munich

** at that time you could already see beautiful small bronzes by Constantinus I and his sons and for DM 5.0

** (my note) In 1954 1 Dueutsche Mark (DM) = $4.20. Adjusted for inflation DM 0.50 to DM 1 in 1954 was equal to a range of about $20 to $40 in 2019 dollars.​

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My Example from the Collection

As with most of the coins from the Dr. Walter Neussel Collection my coin has a documented provenance which in my case dates back to 1998. The coin also came with several tags (possibly another collector?) that I have not yet identified but at least shows how studious Dr. Neussel was in retaining all the information he could from the coins in his collection.


Roman Empire
Diocletian, AD 284-350
AE Antoninianus, Rome mint, 6th officina, struck AD 285-286
Dia.: 24.73 mm
Wt.: 3.55 g
Obv.: IMP DIOCLETIANVS AVG. Diocletian radiate bust right.
Rev.: IOVI CONSER-VAT AVG. Jupiter standing holding thunder bolt and scepter. XXIZ below.
Ref.: RIC V:II 161
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection; Auktion GM 92, Lot 365 (Nov. 1998); Dr. Busseo Peus Nachf. Auktion 420, Lot 6051 (Nov. 2017)


Tag from the Dr. Neussel Collection


An additional unidentified handwritten tag (post GM 1998 auction?)


I recently acquired the GM 92 catalog that includes my coin.


Here is my coin photographed in the Nov. 1998 GM catalog.

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Please feel free to post your coins from the Dr. Walter Neussel Collection. Also please feel free to add any additional information on the collector or the collection that you may know.


Also feel free to comment or post anything you feel is relevant.

 

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I have several coins from this collection, and I went through the same process as you in getting biographical information from Peus. This highlights one downside of internet vs. paper catalogues - much important information that you would read in the intro pages of paper catalogues gets hidden or lost in online bidding venues.

 

@Curtisimo that is a wonderfully splendid coin with an added bonus of a nice provenance. Much enjoyed reading about the Drs. Neussel. -d

 

Good work and very interesting! I look forward to more.

 

Love the write up on the Dr. Neussel collection and your coin.
it is a shame that none of the sons of Dr. Walter Jr. did not have any interest in Ancient coins.

 

Well, call me selfish but whatever coins from my collection I don't sell will literally go in my grave. Which will be somewhere in northern Greenland.

Yeah yeah, let me be eccentric

 

Excellent coin, Curtis! I'm glad you managed to find more information on the Neussel Collection. Thanks for writing it up.

I love all six coins I managed to pick up from this collection.


DIVUS VESPASIAN
AR Denarius. 3.06g, 19mm. Rome mint, struck under Titus, AD 80-81. RIC II 357 (Titus); RSC 497. O: DIVVS AVGVSTVS VESPASIANVS, laureate head right. R: Two capricorns back to back, supporting shield inscribed S C set on globe.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection


VESPASIAN
AE Obol. 7.91g, 23.7mm. EGYPT, Alexandria, RY 5 = AD 72/3. RPC 2440; Emmett 222.5; Dattari 415; Milne 430. O: AVTOK KAIΣ ΣEBAO VEΣΠAΣIANOV, laureate bust right. R: Horus falcon (or hawk) wearing sekhmeti crown right; LE in left field.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection


ANTONINUS PIUS
AE Drachm. 24.25g, 33.5mm. EGYPT, Alexandria, RY 10 = AD 146/7. RPC Online temp 13590; Emmett 1457; Dattari Savio 8311-12. O: ΑVΤ Κ Τ ΑΙΛ ΑΔΡ ΑΝΤωΝƐΙΝΟС СƐΒ ƐVС, laureate head right. R: Apollo Didymeus (of Miletus) standing, facing, holding stag and bow, tripod at feet; between the Nemeseis of Smyrna, one on right holding cubit-rule; L ΔƐΚΑΤΟV in exergue.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection


COMMODUS
AE As. 10.7g, 24.5mm. Rome mint, AD 192. RIC 644; Cohen 193. O: L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL, head of Commodus as Hercules right, wearing lion skin. R: HER-CVL/RO-MAN/AV-GV/S-C in four lines flanking club; all within laurel wreath.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection (acquired from Dr. Busso Peus, 1958)


JULIA DOMNA
AR Denarius. 3.0g, 19.5mm. Rome mint, AD 201. RIC 540; Vagi 1723; BMC 4. O: IVLIA AVGVSTA, draped bust right; hair elaborately waved. R: AETERNIT IMPERI, laureate and draped bust of Caracalla right, vis-à-vis bareheaded and draped bust of Geta left.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection


CARACALLA [with GETA]
AE36. 17.85g, 36.2mm. CARIA, Stratonicaea, circa AD 209-211. Jason, son of Cleobulus, gramatteus. SNG von Aulock 2686; SNG Cop 512. O: Confronted busts of Caracalla right and [Geta – erased as result of damnatio memoriae] left, both laureate, draped, and cuirassed; c/m: ΘEOY within rectangular incuse, head of Minerva right within circular incuse. R: Hekate standing left holding patera and torch; to left, hound standing left, head right.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection

 

Great write up Curtisimo,
I think you mixed up the conversion rate Deutsch Mark against the USD.
1 mark was about 25 cents US or 1 USD = 4 mark in 1954.

I dont think my Diocletian was ever part of that Neussel collection

 

It's always fun to know something about the person or persons who owned a coin before you . That's a very nice example of a young Diocletian, @Curtisimo!

@zumbly, wow... what a remarkable assortment of coins! Jealous .

 

Thanks for the nice words everyone.

@zumbly , those are some fantastic examples and I especially like the Commodus with the 1958 provenance.

Very good point. Would love to see your ex Dr Neussel Collection examples.

 

I have twelve coins that are just such an example. They were a group lot from Stack's in 2013.

The print catalog and e-catalog have a writeup of one of the collectors whose estate of coins were being auctioned in those sessions. Most of the collection was offered as individual lots but the lesser coins were sold in group lots. In the print/e-catalog, the group lots were noted to be from this collector but that final line of description is not included in the archived ACsearch and Sixbid listings nor was any documentation of the pedigree shipped with the coins. Unless I have the catalog or print out a copy of the lot listing, in the future there may be no way for the next owner to verify the coins' history.

The bio as it appears in the catalog, which is fortunately available online:



One of the coins from that group lot:


EGYPT, Ptolemy III Euergetes
246-222 BCE
AE 48 mm, 91.8 gm
Obv: laureate head of Zeus Ammon right
Rev: eagle standing left on thunderbolt looking right, wings partly spread, E monogram between eagle's legs
Ref: Sear 7782, Svoronos 446
ex Professor James Eaton Collection, acquired in the 1800s

 

This is reversed. It was 4.2 DM = $1.

In 1954 1 DM was 0.24 US dollar.

 

Thanks for posting this information about Dr. Neussel, @Curtisimo. I'm resurrecting the thread because I acquired my first Ex-Neussel coin.

This one arrived just today from Naumann's auction on 1 August. Researching its provenance online led me to the Busso Peus sale of the Walter Neussel collection back in 2017. Naumann said nothing about this.

Here's the Peus auction listing:


And here's my photo and catalog description:

Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 13.77 g, 28.1 mm, 11 h.
Rome, AD 140.
Obv: DIVA AVGVSTA-FAVSTINA, veiled bust, right.
Rev: S C, crescent and seven stars.
Refs: RIC 1199b; BMC 1478; Cohen 276; Strack 1249; RCV --.
Notes: Ex Walter Neussel, Peus E-Auction 420, lot 5290, 18 Nov 2017, acquired October 1959, Maison Platt, Paris.​

 

Wow that’s awesome @Roman Collector ! I’m so glad you were able to find the provenance... 1959! Great coin and certainly in the right collection. I think even my Faustinas would perfer to go live with you at this point.

Im glad this thread picked up a bit more steam lately. I know there must be more ex-Neussel coins out there in CTer collections.

I remember that his family posted to this thread recently about his book collection going up for auction. It seems that post has been removed (presumably advertising rules). I should have made a note of when and where though. I think it’s over now but didn’t find it searching Google when I looked.

 

Indeed many thanks for writing this note, @Curtisimo. Looks like the thread may be immortal.

I recently obtained a Dr. Neussel #1936. Unsurprisingly, for me, it's a Probus. RIC 352.

For a medical doctor, Neussel had surprisingly legible handwriting, especially as it is super tiny on the collector's ticket. Presumably written with a technical pen.

Now I have to figure out what "W.N. Sen., Kren" on the bottom of the ticket stand for.

Edit: Ah… Slow brain… W.N.Sen. is Walter Neussel Senior, obviously.

 

Thank you for the kind words @bonoimp . I enjoyed researching and learning about this collection. I started one or two others and intended to post a thread about them but I got sidetracked and haven’t fully finished my research yet.

That is very neat that you can trace this coin back to Dr Walter Neussel Sen. I believe that he passed away in 1975 so that gives you a date range of between 1954 and 1975 for when he added your coin to his collection. I was sad to read that Dr. Walter Neussel Jun. passed away in May of this year.

Here is an updated photo of my much loved Neussel coin.

 

I love this Diocletian Antoninian with the golden-hue-silvering! Interesting writeup too.

Dr. Neussel was apparently a very nice and distinquished person. All his live he fought for the weak and helpless and he did a lot for animal protection:

Nachruf auf Dr. Walter Neussel • Albert Schweitzer Stiftung (albert-schweitzer-stiftung.de)

 

Just realized, I also have a coin from the Dr. Walter Neussel collection:

Obv.: IMP CP LIC GALLIENVS PF AVG
Rev.: VICTORIAE AVGG IT GERM
Mint: Rome
Measurements: 3.31g, 24.3mm
The coin celebrates "a number of" victories over the Germanic peoples.

 

And another one from the the Neussel collection:

Obv: IMP C M AVR CL QVINTILLVS AVG
Rev: FORTVNA REDVX / Z
Mint: Rome
Measurements: 3.39g, 20mm, 12h

RIC V online 1165.