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<p>[QUOTE="Curtis, post: 24661328, member: 26430"]One of my favorite coins is a Mazaios Tarsus Stater (but of the lion-bull type without city walls).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572138[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the only coin I've ever been very conflicted about removing from encapsulation. It was from the first large sale of encapsulated ancient coins ever, in 2002. At their Signature Sale 296 (27 July 2002), Heritage Auctions first tried it out by having ICG encapsulate <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=ICG&category=1&company=50&auction=147&order=2" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=ICG&category=1&company=50&auction=147&order=2" rel="nofollow">>350 of the ancient coins from the Dr. Joseph Seventko Collection</a> (Lancaster, PA area physician & coin collector).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572140[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>It was a big promotional event with booths at coin shows and full-page ads in magazines. The first sale didn't seem very successful (certainly not for this coin, on which Seventko lost big), perhaps partly because the photos were awful (showing only the full slab, no close-ups). But Heritage kept it up, and it has become commercially successful.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572139[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>(CNG & NGC had attempted a slabbing collaboration in 1991, but amazingly, in response to a letter-writing campaign led by Harlan J. Berk and a few others, NGC suspended the effort and published an open letter to that effect! <i>The Celator</i>, July 1991, page 23: <a href="https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/50-vol-05-no-07-july-1991/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/50-vol-05-no-07-july-1991/" rel="nofollow">https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/50-vol-05-no-07-july-1991/</a>!)</p><p><br /></p><p>Removing from the slab meant discarding some of its physical "object biography," but meant I was able to find new provenance. <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6437679" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6437679" rel="nofollow">By the time I bought it</a>, any provenance before 2002 had been lost. And about 1.5-2mm of the edges were covered by the ICG insert, so only by removing it could I positively match it to old photos.</p><p><br /></p><p>It turns out the coin had been part of another important moment in the late 20th century history of ancient coins: The Athena Fund! This was Merill-Lynch's ancient coin investment fund, run by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McNall" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McNall" rel="nofollow">Bruce McNall</a> (owner of NFA & LA Kings NHL hockey team, and producer of <i>Weekend at Bernie's</i>!). The fund went bust. McNall was imprisoned for financial crimes & wrote a classic autobiography about his life in the high end ancient coin world, <i>Fun while it Lasted</i>.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin was part of the liquidation sale at Sotheby's in 1993 (the left reverse illustrated in Lot 808). It probably originally came from the so-called "Tarsus Hoard" of the late 1970s, which flooded the market with similar Mazaios Staters in the 1980s.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1572141[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It's hard to find Mazaios Staters with pre-1980s provenance. If I get another, I'll try to get one that pre-dates this find.</p><p><br /></p><p>That is a nice bonus to Curtisimo's Stocklein Collection example. It certainly doesn't seem to be from the same hoard. (Although acquired "prior to 1981," it was probably quite a bit beforehand.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Curtis, post: 24661328, member: 26430"]One of my favorite coins is a Mazaios Tarsus Stater (but of the lion-bull type without city walls). [ATTACH=full]1572138[/ATTACH] This is the only coin I've ever been very conflicted about removing from encapsulation. It was from the first large sale of encapsulated ancient coins ever, in 2002. At their Signature Sale 296 (27 July 2002), Heritage Auctions first tried it out by having ICG encapsulate [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=ICG&category=1&company=50&auction=147&order=2']>350 of the ancient coins from the Dr. Joseph Seventko Collection[/URL] (Lancaster, PA area physician & coin collector). [ATTACH=full]1572140[/ATTACH] It was a big promotional event with booths at coin shows and full-page ads in magazines. The first sale didn't seem very successful (certainly not for this coin, on which Seventko lost big), perhaps partly because the photos were awful (showing only the full slab, no close-ups). But Heritage kept it up, and it has become commercially successful. [ATTACH=full]1572139[/ATTACH] (CNG & NGC had attempted a slabbing collaboration in 1991, but amazingly, in response to a letter-writing campaign led by Harlan J. Berk and a few others, NGC suspended the effort and published an open letter to that effect! [I]The Celator[/I], July 1991, page 23: [URL]https://social.vcoins.com/files/file/50-vol-05-no-07-july-1991/[/URL]!) Removing from the slab meant discarding some of its physical "object biography," but meant I was able to find new provenance. [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6437679']By the time I bought it[/URL], any provenance before 2002 had been lost. And about 1.5-2mm of the edges were covered by the ICG insert, so only by removing it could I positively match it to old photos. It turns out the coin had been part of another important moment in the late 20th century history of ancient coins: The Athena Fund! This was Merill-Lynch's ancient coin investment fund, run by [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McNall']Bruce McNall[/URL] (owner of NFA & LA Kings NHL hockey team, and producer of [I]Weekend at Bernie's[/I]!). The fund went bust. McNall was imprisoned for financial crimes & wrote a classic autobiography about his life in the high end ancient coin world, [I]Fun while it Lasted[/I]. This coin was part of the liquidation sale at Sotheby's in 1993 (the left reverse illustrated in Lot 808). It probably originally came from the so-called "Tarsus Hoard" of the late 1970s, which flooded the market with similar Mazaios Staters in the 1980s. [ATTACH=full]1572141[/ATTACH] It's hard to find Mazaios Staters with pre-1980s provenance. If I get another, I'll try to get one that pre-dates this find. That is a nice bonus to Curtisimo's Stocklein Collection example. It certainly doesn't seem to be from the same hoard. (Although acquired "prior to 1981," it was probably quite a bit beforehand.)[/QUOTE]
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