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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Silphium Addict, post: 6567268, member: 116882&quot;][QUOTE=&quot;scarborough, post: 6563964, member: 93146&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Firstly, if our coin is not photographed in an auction catalogue featuring a named collection how can we ourselves prove provenance?</p><p><br /></p><p>(I think the answer is that we cannot.)</p><p><br /></p><p>And secondly if we cannot prove provenance, how valuable is that claim if challenged?</p><p><br /></p><p>D[/QUOTE]</p><p>I think you have a valid point. Photos are the key to proving provenance. (I’ve had a few issues due to subsequent cleaning or early catalogs that had photos of casts of the coins). So, more valuable coins are more likely to have provenances because lower value coins may not have had photos, been in group lots or not even included in sales. Having an original tag or some other information might be helpful but not specific.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can do your own research. There are several sites, like HEIDI (Heidelberg University), that have digitized old auction catalogs. With a little effort, you may be able to find an image of your coin to verify its provenance.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have some coins I really think are from certain hoards but not all coins in a published study may have photos included or not all specimens of a hoard were included in a study. Here’s an specific example of the importance of photos. A friend asked me if I thought some Kyrene AR tetradrachms were from the famous Asyut hoard. I thought they might be some of the specimens listed without photos because of the types, weights and the typical whitish surfaces. However, I could not be certain. The coins were then sold to a dealer whose cataloger had access to the unpublished photos of the hoard which increased the value significantly. Ouch![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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