Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="SwK, post: 2015802, member: 22309"]Oct 20th 2014 Auction and 1’000 words only The auction room at the Bar au Lac in Zurich Switzerland was ready for the NAC auction. The dealers reserved their seats and the first lot started at 14:30 and was to finish at around 17:00. It was a Monday the dealers had flown in from all over the world at the weekend. There were very few collectors in the room in fact I think only 4 or 5 and the remainder were dealers with now the added internet and telephone bidders of both collectors and dealers. The highlight of the Auction came early Lot 24 a CALIGULA Sestertia with a wonderful Tiber Patina, estimated at 250’000 CHF it opened at 325’000 CHF and sold at 600’000 CHF hammer price to a ‘hand clap’ ovation in the room. Roman BRONZES are the ‘darling’ of the true Roman coin collectors. It should always be said that the top auction houses attract the finest coins available in the market and usual because of their name and credibility these auction houses are frequented by the worlds main collectors and dealers and fetch the strongest prices as in any art auction. We cannot dismiss the different reasons that people fascination with money continues, whether history, art, or investment and was written about by Suetonius in his De vita Caesarum. ‘Pecunia non olet’ The market has changed requiring a higher level of quality for the collectors. There is a polarization between the finest pieces and the rest, like works of Art you have the ‘best and the rest’. The market cross-road has passed with the demand for FINEST quality and purchasing through the internet which has encouraged finer digital photography and the different quality of image portrayed via the high quality definition of the computer screens? The major change since I last visited a sale room 5 years ago is internet bidding and that numismatic material can be anywere in the globe and today as there are no boundaries. The demand for quality is now paramount. The communication between dealer’s requirements to meet collector’s requirements. The effect of digital photography that now shows every blemish of the coin and when it comes to bronzes the wonders and problems of a coin. This short note to my children is focused to discuss early Roman bronzes, the period 1st-3rd cent AD the high Roman Empire. Although many millions of bronzes were struck few have survived in the condition being sort by todays discerning collectors. We need to understand what the meaning of wonderful condition is. This is the secret to the future of these items as miniature works of art and propaganda coins since the days when they were struck. We are dealing with a period from around 2000 years ago were most of the bronze coins that were to be put away in hoards and found from the early 1800’s. We know that the earliest hoards were found in very large amounts and they were just sent to the foundry to be melted for raw material as there was not a market for these base metal coins. We have no reason to believe that this did not continue until the end of the 1800’s. Then we have the introduction of fertilizers to the land and those coins which were dropped and lost were mainly 12-20cms under the earth were churned over with the tilling of the land were being destroyed by chemicals added to the earth. This today leaved us with a dearth of material, we are lucky enough to have some coins with wonderful patination as some were lost in volcanic areas and areas that were not affected by modern chemicals. Now let us bring us until today the year 2015. Roman bronzes over the last 40 years have become more popular not because they have a value exceeding the other base metals but because they are wonderful in the designs that are on the coins. The carry the portraits of the Emperors on one side and the fetes which they achieved on the other, the deities they worshipped, places they came from, architecture. Were they were struck, the propaganda they wished to portray to the people that stretched the whole Roman Empire. These pieces were created by the finest artisans of the period. What are these wonderful bronzes? In the most Sestertius, Dupondius and Ass all being bronzes of different weights were the art of the early Roman Empire and until today date history. We will not discuss the different Emperors or Empresses or the coins struck in different places only to say the ones with SC were struck by the order of Rome in Rome. Why am I writing a short note to you today, this is not an academic work but a short introduction to the next phase of individuals that will be responsible to look after pieces of history for the next generation and for the world’s future heritage? Now let us deal with the exciting change that is re-shaping the market, it is in fact a transition created by modern technology as mentioned earlier. We have this wonderful change of the ability to take digital photographs, the ability to have the colour that reflects the coins in its full beauty. Yes it will take longer to create this image but it will reflect the patina which are the colours the earth has given to the coin over the centuries. We now move to the area that is demanding these changes, technology, and the ability to bid online, the opportunity to have your desired dealer to examine the coin you will consider to acquire and be able to discuss at a distance. This has started developing as mentioned at the beginning of this note. The next requirement is what are collectors looking for, looking to the future, we understand that nothing remains unchanged. Even the hobby of ‘Kings’ Numismatics. As the market has matured were in the last 50 years individual were educated by dealers to look for wonderful smoothed fields that embellished the portraits and the propaganda on the reverse we are now witnessing a change to ‘purism’. As all changes in art there are steps, the master I had was Dr.Leo Mildenberg who was a mentor of Jaxob Hirch who became the father of European numismatics post WW2. In the 1970’s he was already discussing his ‘purism’ that today is changing how the future will look in collecting the wonderful world of coins. Today Dr, Walker continues the tradition of Dr, Mildenberg and now Yves Gunzenreiner another generation is continuing under Dr Walker all from the same stable of Leu. We have a number of houses like NAC were the late Roberto Russo was a King at the time of Mildenberg, now there are several more to be noted. It is not a secret but in fact today an open forum only to what we know already. We are returning to what can be considered as near as possible a ‘natural coin’. A coin that when found is only lighly washed in warm water, the earth is lightly brushed away to find the original beauty of the coin. The patination that took centuries to form is not removed or touched. The is not rebuilt, have epoxy, smoothed in the fields or engraved to highlight the coin. We are now wishing to hold a piece of art as it was created in the days of the high Roman Empire.[/QUOTE]

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches