Do any of you have (or have access to or know where I can find) Catalogues of the french Auction Firm Rollin & Feuradent from the 1850s to the 1880s, especially their 1880 "CATALOGUE D'UNE COLLECTION DE MÉDAILLES ROMAINES", Part III (Gordien III - Maximien Hercule)? If so, I would be really grateful if you good check if the piece by Numerianus listed in there is my Medallion (MONETA reverse)
There are two Numerianus Medallions with MONETA reverse listed in the R & F catalogue you mention, one ex Dupre and Wigan with the obverse showing a top half of the body to right, holding a sceptre on his shoulder and another with just a laureate and draped bust to right. The first one (# 7199) is size 11 on the Mionnet scale and the second one (# 7205) is size 9. As there are no weights given, is this information enough to match your coin to one of these two?
Thank you very much!!! This exactly matches the two Medallions of Numerian listed in Cohen (2nd edition) as belonging to "M.Rollin"! Nr. 7199 matches the coin listed as Cohen 27 with size 11, laureate and cuirassed bust right with Aegis, holding a scepter on shoulder, on his chest Medusa´s head. Nr. 7205 matches the coin listed as Cohen 32 with size 9, laureate and draped bust right, and also belonging to Rollin. It was accquired by Consul Weber and is mine now This coin is peculiar by showing a crack across the left quarter and having the unique obverse legend IMP C AVR NVMERIANVS AVG. Are there pictures in the catalogue or a price list or any further info you can share?
The American Numismatic Society library has one and it is said to have 3 plates. https://donum.numismatics.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=125747 There is a nice description of the catalog in Spring's book on Ancient Coin Auction Catalogs 1880-1980. It confirms that there are three plates, and says all three plates are of ancient coins. The coins are from the Crignon de Montigny collection. Update: archive.org has a copy you can browse and download. https://archive.org/details/mdaillesgrecques00htel/page/n13 . The plates are line drawings.
That is a nice catalogue Ed, but does not seem to be the one mentioned above, because it has no Medallions of Numerianus in it. The one I'm looking for seems to be a fixed price list.
The ANS (Crignon de Montigny collection) is an auction catalogue. I was referring to the Fixed Price List. There is a Numerian Medaillon listed in the Crignon de Montigny collection with the reverse legend MONETA AVGG but the condition is given as F.D.C. and the size as 10 in the Mionnet scale. Not illustrated on the three plates of drawings.
Ah, now I found the Medallion in the Crignon de Montigny catalogue: Mine is not size 10 and certainly does not qualify as FDC, but is graded as "vorzüglich" (extremely fine) in the 1909 Hirsch catalogue of the Consul Weber Collection. Here are my pictures: What is the condition stated in the 1880 fixed price catalogue and is there any provenance given or further info on it? May I ask if you can post a scan/foto of the catalogue entry of Nr. 7205 and maybe the title page of the catalogue? I wonder if it has a number or exact publishing date...
This FPL is a 5.5"x4" very fragile tightly bound booklet. It will not be possible to scan it without damaging it. What I can do is give a complete description. The so called 3rd part is carrying on from page 462 (the last page of parts 1 & 2 that are published as one entity) and therefore starts on page 463. However, there are six unnumbered pages preceding page 463 the first of which is the title page and mentions coins ..."DEPUIS GORDIEN III JUSQU'A ROMULUS AUGUSTULE". The remaining unnumbered pages serve as an introduction to this third part of the catalogue and mention, amongst other details pertaining to the richness of the contents, that the first part (i.e. parts 1 & 2) has been out of print for a long time. In fact, they ask collectors to send them any duplicates they may have so that they can be forwarded to other collectors who need them. I will continue later with another message.
The Fitzwilliam records what they have of those lists as follows: 1862: Médailles romaines vol 1 to Trajan vol 3, Gordian III to Romulus Augustulus We know however that vol. 3, the volume that concerns us, is dated after 1964 as will be shown below. I now copy exactly how lot 7205 is listed on page 656: IMP. C. AVR. NVMERIANVS AVG Buste laure et drape a droite. R. MONETA AVGG. Les trois monnaies debout. Rome (no. 18 var. sans M) BR. Medaillon mod. 9. B. 150 fr. And below this description, the cataloguer refers, in smaller print, as follows: Voir aussi catalogue grec nos 9301, 9302. These numbers in the Greek FPL correspond to the two Numerians from Roman Alexandria. The Greek FPL is dated 1864 on the title page, therefore this third part of the Roman FPL has been issued after 1864. So "Shortly after 1864" or perhaps more likely just "After 1864" is the best approximation for the appearance of your Medallion in the French market.
Thank you for your detailed research ... and congratulations to owning such a rare and ancient catalogue! So there must be (at least) two editions of Volume III of Rollin & Feuardents fixed price catalogue, the 1860´s version which you described and that I had not know about before (pictured left) and a later issue printed in 1880 (pictured right), the one I mentioned in my original post: The obvious difference ist the title: while the 1860s issue covers the emperors from Gordian III to Romulus Augustulus, the 1880 issue only goes up to Maximian Herculius and has the publishing year given on the front page. I wonder why no volumes I and II seem to exist of the „second“ edition of the catalogue. In this sale the Volumes I & II (bound together) are advertised as being from the 60s, while the Volume III coming with it is the 1880 edition: http://www.icollector.com/Massive-Early-Rollin-Feuardent-Catalogues-of-Greek-Roman-Coins_i26241767
The early (1860's) edition may say on the cover that it goes up to Romulus Augustulus but in fact ends with Maximianus Herculius plus 7 additional pages for Carausius, two more for Allectus and half a page for Domitius Domitianus. The intention was therefore to go up to Romulus Augustulus but there probably was not enough stock to make this happen. When the "Troisieme Partie" was reprinted in 1880, the correct contents were mentioned on the front cover.
I found a bound book including all three parts that has the year "1870" written into both covers by it´s previous owner: https://www.abebooks.it/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=2913635370&searchurl=tn=catalogue+collection+medailles+romaines+vente&sortby=20&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3 So we can date the original third volume to between 1864 and 1870 now
My own copy of the first edition arrived today! It´s in good shape and despite having been the only specimen on offer worldwide it only cost me 14 Euros Thanks again for your help!!!
