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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cicero12, post: 5041556, member: 114838&quot;]In recent years, it seems provenances have become increasingly important.&nbsp; While they were previously &quot;nice to know,&quot; they now have a marked impact on a coin&#039;s value. I have seen Aurei sold with no pedigree go for twice the price when a pedigree is later found.&nbsp; Personally, I value the pedigrees for two reasons.&nbsp; The first is historical interest (I like learning about the former owners) and the second, is that I enjoy knowing the piece was not &quot;recently&quot; looted or otherwise procured in violation of current antiquities laws.&nbsp; Of course, this is less of a concern when working with reputable dealers, but everyone makes mistakes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Short bios on these collectors below:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Hyman Montagu</b>:</p><p><br /></p><p>Born into a British Jewish family, Hyman Montagu (formerly Moses), was a prominent London attorney who developed a strong bankruptcy practice. Montagu was an eclectic collector,, beginning with beetles, and then moving on to English hammered and milled coins.&nbsp; Montagu then turned his attention to Roman coins, and purchased large portions of the Ponton D’Amencourt’s collection in 1887.&nbsp; He would begin collecting Greek coins in 1889. He acquired the entire inventory of the Parisian dealer Hoffmann when he retired in 1893, was in direct contact with most European dealers, and travelled extensively. His Roman gold coins were auctioned by Rollin &amp; Feuardent in April 1896, for a total of 363,004 francs.&nbsp; His collection contained 1291 pieces of Roman gold, the largest until Biaggi, and contained pieces of exceptionally high quality.&nbsp; Montagu did a great deal for Britain&#039;s numismatic community, most notably, (i) inviting William Webster to join Spink in 1892 (ii) and donating an extremely large group of exceptional aurei to the British Museum.&nbsp; Spink and Sotheby’s, held numerous auctions to disperse of Montagu’s Greek and English holdings. It is very likely that Montagu’s collection would have been even more impressive if not for his untimely demise at the age of 50.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Valentine John Eustace Ryan</b>:</p><p><br /></p><p>V.J.E. Ryan’s collection of coins was sold in 1952 by English firm Glendining’s<b>.&nbsp; </b>Ryan’s collection consisted not just of an impressive selection of Roman gold coins, but also Roman silver, Greek, and English coins. The Ryan sales have been consistently listed as some of the most important 20th century sales of Roman gold and silver coins.&nbsp; Aside from his notable coin collection, Ryan was also a retired Major in the British Army (who likely served primarily in British India), and a noted mountaineer, summiting many notable peaks with his climbing peers, Franz, Gabriel and Joseph Lochmatter.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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