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<p>[QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 3201818, member: 96898"]I can't tell you how dealers handle this issue, since I have never sold any of my coins and don't intend to do so in the future. Also, I am definitely not a high-end collector, and thus don't play in the field were good provenance records appear to be almost mandatory.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yet, I am conscious of only purchasing from dealers I would consider trustworthy, and strictly avoid coins one might suspect of either being fake or illegaly dug up and exported in the recent past – a practice I definitely don't want to support with my money. I only rarely buy coins that cost more than a decent dinner, but if I do, I want them to come from a respectable dealer and ideally have a well-documented collection history.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once I get a coin, I record from whom I bought it as well as all previous owners I know of on an identification tag, and I have a folder for the receipts. Also, I keep all dealer tickets and, if present, old collection tags, and store them together with the coin. Since my coins are kept in saflips, that's quite easy to do.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes, fascinating provenance stories become visible this way. This, for example, is a per se unspectacular denarius from the collection of Prof. Hildebrecht Hommel (1899–1996), a scholar of classical philology who taught at Tübingen. Hommel did not only keep a second collection or dealer tag (top left, by him or by a previous owner?) with the coin, he also 'recyled' his professional correspondence, apparently from the 30s and 40s, into coin tags (bottom left). After he passed on, his enormous coin collection was sold as larger lots by Busso Peus, and I afterwards purchased this coin from a small hobby dealer who had acquired one of these lots (as recorded on my own tags on the right):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]828820[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Vespasian, Roman Empire, denarius, 75 AD, mint: Rome. Obv: [IMP] CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate bust right. Rev: PON MAX TR P COS VI, Pax seated left holding branch. 18 mm, 3.08g. Ref: RIC II, 772; RSC 366. Ex Hildebrecht Hommel collection, ex Busso Peus Nachfolger, auction 422 (04/26/2018), lot 453. (I blackened the name of the last previous owner since I don't know whether he wants his full name on the internet.)</font></p><p><br /></p><p>To give yet another example, here is a hemidrachm I recently bought from [USER=76086]@Ken Dorney[/USER], inspired by [USER=57495]@zumbly[/USER]'s write-up <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/poll-18-17-dougsmit-vs-32-zumbly-round-2-cit-2018.321875/#post-3162965" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/poll-18-17-dougsmit-vs-32-zumbly-round-2-cit-2018.321875/#post-3162965">here</a>. It came with BCD's tag and photos, and I am very glad to own a coin that once belonged to such an outstanding numismatist:</p><p><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">[ATTACH=full]828821[/ATTACH] </font></p><p><font size="3">Thessaly, Trikka, hemidrachm, 2nd half of 5th c. BC. Obv: Youthful hero, Thessalos, holding a band with both hands below the horns of the forepart of a bull right (<i>taurokathapsia</i>). Rev: T PI KAI N, forepart of horse prancing right. 16 mm, 2.86 g. Ref: BCD Thessaly 775.7 (same dies); see SNG Copenhagen 262–265; see BMC 1–9; see CNG, e-auction 129, lot 94 (same dies). Ex BCD collection, ex Kenneth W. Dorney.</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 3201818, member: 96898"]I can't tell you how dealers handle this issue, since I have never sold any of my coins and don't intend to do so in the future. Also, I am definitely not a high-end collector, and thus don't play in the field were good provenance records appear to be almost mandatory. Yet, I am conscious of only purchasing from dealers I would consider trustworthy, and strictly avoid coins one might suspect of either being fake or illegaly dug up and exported in the recent past – a practice I definitely don't want to support with my money. I only rarely buy coins that cost more than a decent dinner, but if I do, I want them to come from a respectable dealer and ideally have a well-documented collection history. Once I get a coin, I record from whom I bought it as well as all previous owners I know of on an identification tag, and I have a folder for the receipts. Also, I keep all dealer tickets and, if present, old collection tags, and store them together with the coin. Since my coins are kept in saflips, that's quite easy to do. Sometimes, fascinating provenance stories become visible this way. This, for example, is a per se unspectacular denarius from the collection of Prof. Hildebrecht Hommel (1899–1996), a scholar of classical philology who taught at Tübingen. Hommel did not only keep a second collection or dealer tag (top left, by him or by a previous owner?) with the coin, he also 'recyled' his professional correspondence, apparently from the 30s and 40s, into coin tags (bottom left). After he passed on, his enormous coin collection was sold as larger lots by Busso Peus, and I afterwards purchased this coin from a small hobby dealer who had acquired one of these lots (as recorded on my own tags on the right): [ATTACH=full]828820[/ATTACH] [SIZE=3]Vespasian, Roman Empire, denarius, 75 AD, mint: Rome. Obv: [IMP] CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate bust right. Rev: PON MAX TR P COS VI, Pax seated left holding branch. 18 mm, 3.08g. Ref: RIC II, 772; RSC 366. Ex Hildebrecht Hommel collection, ex Busso Peus Nachfolger, auction 422 (04/26/2018), lot 453. (I blackened the name of the last previous owner since I don't know whether he wants his full name on the internet.)[/SIZE] To give yet another example, here is a hemidrachm I recently bought from [USER=76086]@Ken Dorney[/USER], inspired by [USER=57495]@zumbly[/USER]'s write-up [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/poll-18-17-dougsmit-vs-32-zumbly-round-2-cit-2018.321875/#post-3162965']here[/URL]. It came with BCD's tag and photos, and I am very glad to own a coin that once belonged to such an outstanding numismatist: [SIZE=3] [ATTACH=full]828821[/ATTACH] Thessaly, Trikka, hemidrachm, 2nd half of 5th c. BC. Obv: Youthful hero, Thessalos, holding a band with both hands below the horns of the forepart of a bull right ([I]taurokathapsia[/I]). Rev: T PI KAI N, forepart of horse prancing right. 16 mm, 2.86 g. Ref: BCD Thessaly 775.7 (same dies); see SNG Copenhagen 262–265; see BMC 1–9; see CNG, e-auction 129, lot 94 (same dies). Ex BCD collection, ex Kenneth W. Dorney.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
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