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<p>[QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 4287581, member: 99554"]<b>Prologue</b></p><p>I like Alexandrian's coins. They are easily recognizable, often dated, some type of reverses are exclusive to this mint, and someone described them as " <i>beautiful, with evident oriental flavour although with an aftertaste quite different from that of the Asian mints</i>." The workshop of Alexandria produced coins for a longer period than any other provincial mint. Any other foreign currency was prohibited in Egypt for centuries. If you were a roman citizen who wants to do business there, you had to exchange your money before crossing the borders (at their advantage of course). Why did the Roman power tolerate this closed currency system? Probably because Egypt was the most important provider of wheat for the empire. I'm pretty sure all collectors want to have at least one example of Alexandria in their collection, don't you ? Who says Alexandria says Dattari. Let's talk a bit about him.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c5edfe_9016059d03bc4d1baf9f470bd216a56e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_968,h_624,al_c,q_85/c5edfe_9016059d03bc4d1baf9f470bd216a56e~mv2.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> Ancient Roman odeon in Alexandria</p><p><br /></p><p>Giovanni Dattari (1853 - 1923 ) was an Italian coin and antique dealer and numismatist. After the death of his father, who was an hotel administrator, Dattari’s family moved to Egypt in 1875, where he started his business. Dattari was married with a Greek woman, Eudosia Zifadà and had two children, Marco Aurelio and Maria. Between 1891 and 1903, he gathered a coin collection of over 25,000 ancient coins. His home was a meeting place for famous archeologists and numismatists from all around the world. Even if he didn't have any academic backgrounds in numismatic, he wrote several articles on this subject who made many scholars envious!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091360[/ATTACH]</p><p>In 1901, Dattari published a catalogue of his Alexandrian coins, a total of 6,580 pieces. Two years later, he wrote that his complete collection of coins included 6,835 Alexandrians, 91 Archaic Greeks, 230 coins of Alexander the Great and 19,320 Romans. He had to sold a part of his collection in 1909 in Washington and again in Paris in 1912 ( 622 Egyptian, Greek and Roman pieces). Later, Dattari also donated almost 2000 coins to the National Museum of Roma. Not very long before he died in 1923, he claimed that was still owning over 13,000 Alexandrian's specimen. After his death, the collection was bequeathed to his widow and his children. It was not a secret for anyone that his wife was in possession of an unpublished manuscript of the catalogue for the 2nd part of the Dattari collection (1902-1923)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091361[/ATTACH]</p><p>The Collection of Dattari (1901) Also available online :</p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig01datt" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig01datt" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig01datt</a></p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig02datt" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig02datt" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig02datt</a></p><p><br /></p><p>But the coins remained untouched in the family for almost 30 years. After the revolution of 1952 in Egypt, all antiquities couldn't be legally exported out of the country, so his daughter Maria had to smuggle them to Europe. Her goal was to consign them to the National Archeological Museum in Athens. She entrusted this mission to her family physician, who "forgot" and instead put the coins in a safe for the next 20 years...</p><p>So we are now in 1972 when Giorgos, the physician's son who is facing financial problems, decided to sell 8,000 coins from the Dattari's collection without their permission. So he was prosecuted, lost his trial and was sentenced to 10 months in prison; at least the remaining 5000 pieces were given back to the family...but the sold coins were forever lost in the nature. Sadly, the next ten years, the rest of the collection was disseminate on the market until Maria's death in 1981. End of the story ? Not at all. Let's go back in 1998, when a box containing old original Dattari's documents was found in a forgotten librairy ! One of these documents was the famous " lost" manuscript of the second part of Dattari's collection. But that's not all. Later, in a stationery shop in Cairo, an appendix of the catalogue was discovered; it contains over 300 pages and more than 700 pencil rubbings from Dattari's hand. With this new information, Adriano Savio published in 1999 (and also in 2007) a reviewed edition of the catalogue of the Dattari collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091366[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Epilogue</b></p><p>What a story my friends. If you have the privilege to own a Dattari's coin, I hope this thread will make you to appreciate more pieces that have such a rich history. So please show me your <b>Alexandrian's coins !</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>CLAUDIUS II. Alexandria</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091370[/ATTACH]</p><p>ANTONINUS PIUS. Alexandria</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091372[/ATTACH]</p><p>PHILIP II. Alexandria</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1091379[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 4287581, member: 99554"][B]Prologue[/B] I like Alexandrian's coins. They are easily recognizable, often dated, some type of reverses are exclusive to this mint, and someone described them as " [I]beautiful, with evident oriental flavour although with an aftertaste quite different from that of the Asian mints[/I]." The workshop of Alexandria produced coins for a longer period than any other provincial mint. Any other foreign currency was prohibited in Egypt for centuries. If you were a roman citizen who wants to do business there, you had to exchange your money before crossing the borders (at their advantage of course). Why did the Roman power tolerate this closed currency system? Probably because Egypt was the most important provider of wheat for the empire. I'm pretty sure all collectors want to have at least one example of Alexandria in their collection, don't you ? Who says Alexandria says Dattari. Let's talk a bit about him. [IMG]https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c5edfe_9016059d03bc4d1baf9f470bd216a56e~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_968,h_624,al_c,q_85/c5edfe_9016059d03bc4d1baf9f470bd216a56e~mv2.jpg[/IMG] Ancient Roman odeon in Alexandria Giovanni Dattari (1853 - 1923 ) was an Italian coin and antique dealer and numismatist. After the death of his father, who was an hotel administrator, Dattari’s family moved to Egypt in 1875, where he started his business. Dattari was married with a Greek woman, Eudosia Zifadà and had two children, Marco Aurelio and Maria. Between 1891 and 1903, he gathered a coin collection of over 25,000 ancient coins. His home was a meeting place for famous archeologists and numismatists from all around the world. Even if he didn't have any academic backgrounds in numismatic, he wrote several articles on this subject who made many scholars envious! [ATTACH=full]1091360[/ATTACH] In 1901, Dattari published a catalogue of his Alexandrian coins, a total of 6,580 pieces. Two years later, he wrote that his complete collection of coins included 6,835 Alexandrians, 91 Archaic Greeks, 230 coins of Alexander the Great and 19,320 Romans. He had to sold a part of his collection in 1909 in Washington and again in Paris in 1912 ( 622 Egyptian, Greek and Roman pieces). Later, Dattari also donated almost 2000 coins to the National Museum of Roma. Not very long before he died in 1923, he claimed that was still owning over 13,000 Alexandrian's specimen. After his death, the collection was bequeathed to his widow and his children. It was not a secret for anyone that his wife was in possession of an unpublished manuscript of the catalogue for the 2nd part of the Dattari collection (1902-1923) [ATTACH=full]1091361[/ATTACH] The Collection of Dattari (1901) Also available online : [URL]https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig01datt[/URL] [URL]https://archive.org/details/moneteimperialig02datt[/URL] But the coins remained untouched in the family for almost 30 years. After the revolution of 1952 in Egypt, all antiquities couldn't be legally exported out of the country, so his daughter Maria had to smuggle them to Europe. Her goal was to consign them to the National Archeological Museum in Athens. She entrusted this mission to her family physician, who "forgot" and instead put the coins in a safe for the next 20 years... So we are now in 1972 when Giorgos, the physician's son who is facing financial problems, decided to sell 8,000 coins from the Dattari's collection without their permission. So he was prosecuted, lost his trial and was sentenced to 10 months in prison; at least the remaining 5000 pieces were given back to the family...but the sold coins were forever lost in the nature. Sadly, the next ten years, the rest of the collection was disseminate on the market until Maria's death in 1981. End of the story ? Not at all. Let's go back in 1998, when a box containing old original Dattari's documents was found in a forgotten librairy ! One of these documents was the famous " lost" manuscript of the second part of Dattari's collection. But that's not all. Later, in a stationery shop in Cairo, an appendix of the catalogue was discovered; it contains over 300 pages and more than 700 pencil rubbings from Dattari's hand. With this new information, Adriano Savio published in 1999 (and also in 2007) a reviewed edition of the catalogue of the Dattari collection. [ATTACH=full]1091366[/ATTACH] [B]Epilogue[/B] What a story my friends. If you have the privilege to own a Dattari's coin, I hope this thread will make you to appreciate more pieces that have such a rich history. So please show me your [B]Alexandrian's coins ! [/B] CLAUDIUS II. Alexandria [ATTACH=full]1091370[/ATTACH] ANTONINUS PIUS. Alexandria [ATTACH=full]1091372[/ATTACH] PHILIP II. Alexandria [ATTACH=full]1091379[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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