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<p>[QUOTE="John Conduitt, post: 5205391, member: 109923"]As far as I'm concerned, provenance does 2 things:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>1) Gives evidence that a coin is not fake. </b>If you know someone knowledgeable or trustworthy owned it and thought it was real e.g. you can see the pictures of it in the archives of well-known auction houses or dealers, you have more confidence in it. If it came from a hoard, you might have provenance back to its manufacture - there have certainly been fewer people owning it who might've faked or altered it.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>2) Shows where the coin has been. </b>This is the story of the coin. If it was in a famous collection, someone's attic or in the ground for 2000 years, it's interesting to know, no matter how famous they were, rather than just seeing a piece of metal that appeared from nowhere. This can also be used to prove ownership.</p><p><br /></p><p>How important these are will depend on:</p><p><br /></p><p>- how likely the coin is to be a fake.</p><p>- how interesting the story is.</p><p>- how reliable the story is. How long is the provenance? Is there proof?</p><p><br /></p><p>You wouldn't pay a significant premium to know Joe Bloggs owned it for a year. But it's a scale, where no provenance at all is zero. If you offered me two identical coins, one with no provenance and one that a regular named collector owned, I would take the latter - so it must be worth something, however small.</p><p><br /></p><p>Quite frankly, I don't understand why everyone doesn't record the provenance of every coin, no matter how insignificant they think it is. It doesn't cost anything and might add value. Once it's lost, it's lost.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some dealers are terrible for this - they even discard provenance - probably because they don't want you to know how much they paid for it. But you can find out anyway if it was sold at auction. (Some dealers realise it is important and send you previous tickets and receipts, even with prices on them e.g. Chris Rudd is great - you almost always get told where a coin was found, even if they have to be vague).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="John Conduitt, post: 5205391, member: 109923"]As far as I'm concerned, provenance does 2 things: [B]1) Gives evidence that a coin is not fake. [/B]If you know someone knowledgeable or trustworthy owned it and thought it was real e.g. you can see the pictures of it in the archives of well-known auction houses or dealers, you have more confidence in it. If it came from a hoard, you might have provenance back to its manufacture - there have certainly been fewer people owning it who might've faked or altered it. [B]2) Shows where the coin has been. [/B]This is the story of the coin. If it was in a famous collection, someone's attic or in the ground for 2000 years, it's interesting to know, no matter how famous they were, rather than just seeing a piece of metal that appeared from nowhere. This can also be used to prove ownership. How important these are will depend on: - how likely the coin is to be a fake. - how interesting the story is. - how reliable the story is. How long is the provenance? Is there proof? You wouldn't pay a significant premium to know Joe Bloggs owned it for a year. But it's a scale, where no provenance at all is zero. If you offered me two identical coins, one with no provenance and one that a regular named collector owned, I would take the latter - so it must be worth something, however small. Quite frankly, I don't understand why everyone doesn't record the provenance of every coin, no matter how insignificant they think it is. It doesn't cost anything and might add value. Once it's lost, it's lost. Some dealers are terrible for this - they even discard provenance - probably because they don't want you to know how much they paid for it. But you can find out anyway if it was sold at auction. (Some dealers realise it is important and send you previous tickets and receipts, even with prices on them e.g. Chris Rudd is great - you almost always get told where a coin was found, even if they have to be vague).[/QUOTE]
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