While looking into some possible provenance for @red_spork , I stumbled upon a coin that looked very familiar in a 1925 Leo Hamburger catalogue. And finally put an end to my search of where Virgil Brand purchased the half litra in my collection. I managed to find it in Brand's ledgers as well which I underlined in red in one of the images. This gives it an even more fantastic provenance (I purchased it without any known provenance at the time) that is now as follows: Heritage Auctions, Weekly auction (29 May 2019), Ex Goodman collection, Triton I (2 December 1997), lot 842; Ex Virgil Brand (1862-1926) collection, Part VII (Sotheby's , 25 October 1984, lot 478 (part of). Ex Leo Hamburger (19 October 1925), lot 221. Photo in the catalogue + my photo: Virgil Brand's ledger: Catalogue Cover:
Michael, Congratulations on your acquisition & discovery ! It's always rewarding when you can trace a provenance as far back as possible; it gives the coin greater importance . I've been lucky enough to experience the same thing on several occasions. The coin pictured below I bought from Harlan Berk many years ago & discovered it was pictured in David Sear's book ROMAN COINS AND THEIR VALUES IV, Copyright 2011, page 111 ! I did write to David asking where he got the coin to photograph & it was too far back for him to remember . Harlan Berk couldn't trace it back either . Oddly the Sear # 12821 is a palindrome (like the word RADAR) & some people say palindromes are an auspicious sign . Maybe I'm looking too deep into this .....
Michael, Great find. This 1925 Hamburger sale is the Niklovitz Collection. You should add that to your provenance information. I believe I told you to check Brand's ledger! Glad it paid off.
Sometimes there are some real "sleepers" in Heritage Weekly World/ Ancients Auctions! Congratulations on some great investigative work
