With no spare cash remaining following a busy September and October auction season, I was relegated to watching the hammer fall on Naville's Dattari lots today. There were a few bargains, particularly among the drachms, and I wouldn't be surprised to see several pop-up on some dealer websites in next few weeks. Did any CT members win a Dattari today?
Yeah, I won a few but they were also-rans on my target list. I bid on 17 coins and won 3. I'm happy to have a few ex-Dattaris but am sad to have missed my most wanted coins. There were several other coins that started high on the priority list but bidding was too high well before the start of the auction. Amazingly, there were a few unsold lots. None of today's coins were high grade but there were a large number of rarities. This was a big auction for me, being a collector of Roman Egyptian coins. I had to make a spreadsheet of all the lots when it posted in order to sort out which ones were priority. At the moment I'm filling in the hastily-written notes from the live auction. It's tempting to blame all of my losses on the infamous Clio (bidder names didn't show) but in reality I wasn't even the immediate underbidder on most of my losses. Anticipating being the proud new owner of some ex-Dattari plate coins, I bought the Savio-Dattari book last week. Wow-- it's entirely plates, >13,000 coins
@TIF , as a collector of Roman Egypt coins, you should have bought Savio long ago!! Savio is the secret to provenancing undisclosed Dattaris and saving the provenance premium. It's well worth the high price of the book, though it's not an easy book to use (best done in conjunction with the 1901 Dattari catalogue). Congratulations on your few wins. Share em when you got em. I would certainly have won a few today, if I had any leftover cash!
It is indeed a challenging book to use, with its chaotic arrangement and faded pictures (they are photographs of pencil rubbings of plaster casts!). I was thrilled to find a copy for a good price last week. It will take a while but I'll go through my current 100+ Roman Egyptian coins to see if by some stroke of luck any are Dattari plate coins. Matching the coins to the plates is not easy since some of the details which make a coin readily identifiable in hand or in photographs are not well demonstrated on the plaster rubbings (flan cracks, for instance). As for posting the coins, I'm going to wait until they are in hand
The Savio arrangement takes some getting used to. Coins are arranged largely by metal, module and reverse type - not scientific at all. In many cases, the coins are listed in numerical order by Dattari catalogue number, but often not. So, Dattari numbers are frequently out of order in Savio. Do you have the Dattari Catalogue? It helps.
Forni makes a single volume reprint of the 1901 catalogue. Savio without the 1901 catalogue is like having a plate volume without the text volume.
I'll definitely order it today! Trying to find things in the textless Savio volume is making me crosseyed
I let this Domitian arch go at 370 Pounds plus fees..... But bought this from Vcoins as a constellation for $55 US, not as good but I figure if I want one I am never going to pay that sort of money so I am happy with this....
Also this one sold for 60 Pounds plus fees, Augustus bronze semis RIC 234. Rare. But I picked this one of Vcoins for 65 Euro plus 8 Euro postage, 18mm, 5.27gm, RIC 234. ( I should start asking Vcoin for advertising commision)
Here's one of many that I lost. I wanted this coin because of the utterly ridiculous animal. In books it is called an elephant, but it is really a piggorhinophant Egypt, Alexandria Trajan, 98-117 Obol circa 110-111 (year 14), Æ 18mm., 3.99g. Laureate head r. Rev. Elephant advancing r.; above LIΔ. Geissen -. Dattari-Savio Pl. 60, 1025 (this coin) Dattari 1205 and Pl. XXXII, 1205 (this coin)