Tiberius obol, ex Dattari

Recently there was an auction with many coins from the Dattari collection. Being a collector of Roman Egyptian coins, I was thrilled. All were plate coins and many or most were rarities, although not in particularly stellar condition. The condition wasn't terribly important to me-- I've certainly happily bought many Roman Egyptian coins in much worse condition .

I wanted all of them but obviously that wasn't possible. After making a spreadsheet and keeping track of prebidding every few days, I narrowed the list. The auction was brutal. Perhaps I should have bid higher on some of the earlier coins of high interest but it was difficult when there were later coins of even higher interest. In the end I had bid on seventeen coins and won only three, none of which were from my top tier of choices. I had intended to bid on only 3-5, depending on the hammers, but kept adding more and more lower tier coins as bid after bid failed.

The coin shown below wasn't even on my whittled bid list. It was the first Dattari lot of the sale and there was only one bid. At the last second I decided to toss in a bid. Later I was glad I did because for a while it looked like it might be my only win. The hippopotamus obol is the most common of Tiberius's obols. Numerous better examples exist but what can I say-- I'm a sucker for the pedigree and I didn't have any Alexandrian coins of Tiberius

This coin was comparatively inexpensive, hammering just one increment above opening. Because of this I was very optimistic about winning many more. The action grew steadily after that and I was almost shut out. Maybe other bidders were a few lots late to the auction when the Dattari coins hit the block.

As is often the case, the coin is better in hand than it was in the auction house images. The color is accurate. There are dark red concretions on the coin and the fields are dark brown.


EGYPT, Alexandria. Tiberius
Year 5, CE 18/9
AE obol, 20 mm, 4.45 gm
Obv: bare head right
Rev: hippopotamus right; TIBEPIoY above; [L] E in exergue
Ref: Emmett 62.5, R1; Geissen 47; Dattari-Savio 102 (this coin); RPC 5082
ex Dattari collection (Giovanni Dattari, 1858-1923)

Giovanni Dattari's personal history is surprisingly scanty. Born in Livorno, Italy (1858), at some point his family moved to Egypt where he became enamored of Egyptian antiquities and ancient numismatics. He began collecting coins in 1891. By 1894 he had 2,602 coins, growing to 6,835 Alexandrians, 91 archaic Greek, 230 Alexander the Great, 910 Ptolemaic, 19,320 Roman coins, and 630 lead and silver coins by 1903. By 1913 those numbers more than doubled. (@Sallent and others-- next time your spouses raise an eyebrow at your rate of acquisition, show them how frugal you are compared to Dattari )

Part of Dattari's collection may have been sold or donated while he was alive but in July 1951 his daughter offered donation of the remaining collection to the Italian state. The Italians procrastinated in completing the paperwork and the offer was withdrawn after the Egyptian army seized power and forced King Farouk into exile in July 1952. The chance to keep this astounding collection together in one place was thereby lost, and the collection was dispersed on the European market around 1970.

In 1901 his collection was published and although it was not a sophisticated book, it because a standard reference for Roman Egyptian numismatics, containing 6,580 coins. In 1999 Adriano Savio compiled a markedly expanded catalog of Dattari coins. The second edition of this book (2007) contains yet more "new" coins: 31 additional plates showing 701 Alexandrian coins that Dattari evidently acquired after making the rubbings of his coins that are published in the first edition. The 2007 book shows more than 13,000 coins!

The quality of the images is poor. The photographs are mostly of rubbings, which is how Dattari visually recorded the collection. Correlating a modern image with a Dattari plate coin can be challenging because many of the usual diagnostic features may not be visible in the rubbings (flan cracks, for example). The assembled plates have numbers and various notes, such as checkmarks as seen below.

​

Savio, Adriano. Numi Augg. Alexandrini: Catalogo della Collezione Dattari.
Published by Bernardi, Trieste, 2007. Limited edition of 250.


Example of the original plates:


Example of the plates added in the 2007 edition:


...

Please feel free to post any Roman Egyptian coins you wish to show or plate coins of any types (preferably with a picture of the book plate ).

 

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Another hippo type. Excellent.

 

LOVE the hippo @TIF !!

Besides the usual Alexandrian types I possess, I'm still in the hunt for Egyptian types, especially depicting the animals and gods that you relish.

I did purchase an example from FORVM's free auctions which is identified as----
DATTARI 196, Nero/Poppaea billon Tet of Alexandria, 13.33 grams.....worn but cheap

 

Love the coin, love your write up and of course, that Dattari Catalogue!

 

Love the color of it, nice addition, Tif.

 

@TIF

That is a great looking coin. Congrats!

 

@TIF I knew you would be a bidder at that auction. I was thinking of you when I was going over the listings, wondering which ones you would be bidding on.

 

Oh the ones that got away . I'm still kicking myself for not going higher on a few even though when the auction was live I bid considerably higher than intended.

 

Lol, yeah, I imagine which of them you were bidding on. I could not imagine, of that group, this was the only one you had a bid on.

Eh, to paraphrase Yoda, "there are always other coins".

 

Another great post TIF! Write ups like this are what make cointalk a special place to be part of.

John

 

what an awesome hippo!

man, who's that dude that keeps taking all you all coins? clio? this dude must have been the clio of his day buying coins at that rate.

did people talk about getting "dattaried" in 1894?

 

Here's an Alexandrian Nero for you, rough and ugly but still large and silver.

 

Nice OP & as always very educational.
I've bid on a few Roman Egytian but so far no luck. One day though!

 

Striking colors, cute hippo, great price, unbeatable provenance... what more could you want? Glad you managed to score it! Thanks for the interesting info on the Dattari collection.

 

I have a copy of Dattari that looks like this:





It is large at 9" x 12 1/2" and 472 pages and XXXVII plates. It says, in Italian, it is reprint of the 1901 edition, but I'm sure it is an old Forni reprint, not from 2007.

 

TIF, awesome coin with and awesome pedigree.

~Doug

 

Thanks, everyone! I'm really glad I bid on this one

@Valentinian -- that reminds me-- there are several books I want to order from you if they haven't sold. I'll send you a PM this weekend. Also, I want to get a copy of your book "The Language of Mathematics". I hated math in high school but grew to like and understand it in college. Of all the subjects studied in high school and college, math turned out to be the most useful and important for all aspects of life. In college something finally clicked and I "got" it, but I would like to have a deeper understanding and this looks like a good way to resume/refresh that pursuit!

 

Wow TIF => gorgeous eye-appeal on that humble hungry hippo (a total winner)



Ummm, I'm fairly sure that this is my only hippo example?

... she has zero-papers (The Donald would not be impressed, eh?)

 

That's one heck of a hippo, SteveO!

I have no idea who my competition was but I assume one of the foes was Clio since he seems to love provincials. Hard to imagine any provincial collector skipping a sale of Dattari coins regardless of condition.

 

Neat coin and really fascinating write-up! Hunting for your coins from rubbings makes it even more fun finding them. Thanks for taking the time to share it.