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Message:: [QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 4437107, member: 99554"]This month of May, it will be the 140th anniversary of the death of an extraordinary numismatist and coin lover, Henry Cohen. Everyone of us who collect Roman coins are still using from time to time his very practical books written almost a century and a half ago. His writings paved the way for several reference catalogs for so-called  Roman Imperial coins.  But who was this man who has dedicated a large part of his life to research the greatest collections all over Europe ? <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/1/15/Henry_Cohen.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> Henry Cohen is born in 1806 in Amsterdam (Netherlands), but his family moved to France when he was still a child. In Paris, he studied music with the composer Anton Reicha, a longtime friend of Beethoven, and also singing with François Lays, one of Napoleon's favorite artist. Before he reached his thirties, he was already an active opera composer and in the meantime a very busy music teacher. He also performed in Naples, Paris and London while he was already writing works dealing with musical theory. [ATTACH=full]1109948[/ATTACH]  Another of his hobbies was books collecting, so he was often described as a great bibliophile. He published in his "free times" Le guide de l'amateur de livres à vignettes du XVIIIe siècle, a bibliography of books either printed and illustrated in France, printed in the French language, or illustrated by a French artist. [ATTACH=full]1109947[/ATTACH] But the passion of his life was certainly numismatic. He gathered over the years an impressive collection of Roman Republican coins, and he also had the project of publishing a work on this subject. Cohen held a fortune from his family which insured him financial independence for decades. Unfortunately, he eventually encountered money problems which forced him to sell his entire collection. However, this did not prevent him from publishing in 1857 his first major work in numismatics, the Description Générale des Monnaies de la République Romaine, Communément Appellées Médailles Consulaires. Even if it is no longer up to date with the latest research and discoveries, its 75 fabulous plates and historical commentaries about remain essential for any collectors. [ATTACH=full]1109949[/ATTACH] Because of his bad luck, Cohen had to search for a job; what better place to start than the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. He was hired there in 1859 as a simple helper and in the same year, the first volume of the first edition of his work on Roman Imperial coins was published: The Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'Empire Romain communément appelées Médailles impériales was completed in 1862 with the 6th volume ( the six volumes and the supplement contained over 4000 pages). In his work, he was not presenting coins by chronological order like Eckhel 75 years before, but by alphabetical order of the reverses; it gave a reference source easy to use even for the novice collector. [ATTACH=full]1109950[/ATTACH] Two thoughts had engaged him to compose these great works: if he had wanted to be useful to amateurs, his colleagues, he had also had the ambition to render a great honor to ancient Rome. Cohen also wanted "to give a more accurate work, in terms of the integrity of the inscriptions and the authenticity of the pieces, than all those that exist". He certainly achieved his goals. He slowly climbed the steps that led him to the fabulous role of curator of the numismatics Collection in Paris. He did not take it easy, and in 1880, he published the first volume of the second edition of his wonderful work. This was the only volume he would see published; the 2e volume contains his obituary. The publication went on anyway, and the 8th volume was printed in 1892. [ATTACH=full]1109955[/ATTACH] He left the souvenir of an humble man with a fabulous numismatic memory, a scientist who had the attention to detail. Henri Cohen finally died on May 17 1880. <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Henry_Cohen.jpg/1343px-Henry_Cohen.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Drawing of Henry Cohen in 1878 I'll present you 2 of my coins which have a link with Cohen : this one is my only Cohen 1: [ATTACH=full]1109960[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1109961[/ATTACH] And a second one I don't tell you why I post it. Can you find the reason ? Are you a good observant ??? [ATTACH=full]1109962[/ATTACH]Please show us your favorite Roman coin. Only one condition: please present it with its Cohen reference ![/QUOTE]

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