The Numismatica Ars classica Spring 2020

I still haven’t received my invoice. Should I send an email?

 

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Well done spotting that pedigree! I'm still waiting for a Zeno... I couldn't justify the price of the 446/1 in CNG, although it was a nice coin on top of the pedigree.

 

No.

It takes many auction houses as much as two weeks to process all the orders, although more typical is about a week. Invoices for major auctions such as this are likely checked individually, not processed automatically as for e-auctions, because the sums involved are so much larger, there may be specific customer terms or conditions that differ between individual customers, and there is likely an order they follow. Sending enquiries only slows the process down as it creates emails needing checking and answering.

Give them til the end of the week. By which I mean next week, not this week.

 

A rare Seleucid tetradrachm that sold for $21,000 in 2014 went unsold at an opening bid of $4500. However, I too thought it wasn’t worth the 4500 opening bid and let it pass.

 

Thanks for the clarification! That makes sense. I've dealt primarily with Heritage and CNG which are usually instantaneous.

 

This is my third Zeno - two of which undisclosed when sold. I have five Haeberlins, four of which undisclosed at time of sale. Collectors can achieve great results if they research targets before rather than after sale.

Though I doubt it has been mentioned in a long time (does it still operate?) the ex-nvmis paid-for provenance service is totally and completely useless. I found essentially nothing from 600 or so checks, each costing a franc. On the same 600 coins (from my collection) I have subsequently found dozens of first class provenances in catalogues that I'd have expected any decent provenance service to have. It just doesn't work. Manual checks work great tho.

 

Do you just own a crap load of catalogs then?

 

Andrew's library is famous and the envy of many collectors. More catalogs certainly help, but a surprising number of good provenances can be found with a relatively modest number of really important catalogs. A good source to start if you want to build a library of catalogs is the late John Spring's "Ancient Coin Auction Catalogues 1880-1980" which not only discusses the catalogs but the auction houses and collectors themselves, and as such is interesting as a sort of history of our hobby.

 

Wow, that's crazy!

 

I agree, the RR bronze collection was amazing. I do not remember seeing that much detail on RR bronze in one auction. It was hard for me to tell if the coins were smoothed, tooled or in exceptional condition.
There was one cast Mercury / Prow Left Sextans that interested me. I do not remember seeing one before (but acsearch tells me @Andrew McCabe sold one last year!). I made a strong pre-bid, about 3 X est, and had to make a few live bids to get the coin. This was my first auction win with 19 bids! I hope I did not "steal" it from someone here.

NAC pic.


pics from Haeberlin - none of the pics match, but his #8 on pg 55 (Hirsch Cat V, 185) has the same wt

Roman Republic Cast Sextans circa 225-217, Æ
Obv - Head of Mercury l.; below, two pellets.
Rev - Prow l.; below, two pellets.
46.23 grams = 277 gram equivalent Ass

You can read a bit more here -
rrdenarius.blogspot.com

 

I've had some success with Ex-Numis although I completely agree: it should be finding far more than it does.

If you have free time during our global quarantine, perhaps it'd be worth starting an service for quarantine hunting for RR coins. I'd happily pay for some adhoc catalog scouring (mine are unfortunately inaccessible and in storage, otherwise it would be a great pastime).

 

A lot of the most important provenances, including most of the illustrated Haeberlin coins (maybe all; I've never checked) can be found in Alberto Banti's Corpus Nummorum Romanorum. A complete eight volume set will cost a few hundred dollars; not nothing, but way less than a comparable library of classical catalogues.

Phil Davis

 

DM'd you

 

Yes.

Phil commented on Banti (good). I can confirm it does NOT include many classic cats, not even Haeberlins. The Haeberlin I got at the NAC Spring Sale wasn't listed as such in Banti, and I know of many other instances. Banti had a policy also of only showing 1 example per symbol of types where there are multiple symbols (such as Papia), so when he found 1 good symbol, he ignored others no matter how classic the catalogue. So it's good but doesn't beat owning a crap load of catalogues.

 

I just got my invoice this morning, so they are going out

 

I got mine this morning too!

 

This reminded me that I still didn't have Banti, mostly because I hadn't yet resigned to paying the $50 or so per volume I saw most sellers asking. I decided to look again and found a set of the red books for about $200 on Abebooks. Still looking for the Imperatorial and Augustan greens, but as I only want a subset of the greens I may just have to buy them a la carte.

Having Banti will be nice, as my second NAC win(not pictured above as it was an unsold lot purchased after the sale) has a previous sale record that points to it being pictured in Banti.