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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 4438161, member: 110350"]Thanks so much for this.  I have the same Cohen 1 that you do, [USER=99554]@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix[/USER] : Vabalathus with Aurelian, billon Antoninianus, 270-272 AD, Antioch Mint. Obv. Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Vabalathus right, VABALATHVS V C R IM D R*  / Rev. Radiate and cuirassed bust of Aurelian right, Γ [gamma] (Antioch, Officina 3) below, IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG. RIC V-1 Aurelian 381, Sear RCV III 11718, Cohen 1.  21 mm., 3.43 g. * Vir Clarissimus, Rex, Imperator, Dux Romanorum. [ATTACH=full]1110071[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1110073[/ATTACH] Perhaps Cohen was the first famous Jewish numismatist, at least the first who did not specialize in Jewish/Judaean coins? Here's the short article about him in the 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia, which says almost nothing about his numismatic achievements: <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4476-cohen-henri" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4476-cohen-henri" rel="nofollow">http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4476-cohen-henri</a> COHEN, HENRI: By: Isidore Singer, Amélie André Gedalge French composer and numismatist; born at Amsterdam 1805; died at Bry-sur-Marne May 17, 1880. Cohen's parents went to France in 1811, and provided excellent musical instruction for their son. He studied harmony with Reicha, and singing with Lois and Pellegrini. In 1832 and 1838 he was at Rome, and there produced "L'Impegnatrice" and "Aviso ai Maritati." In 1839 he established himself at Paris, devoting his efforts chiefly to teaching, and singing with success at various concerts. Cohen was appointed director of the Conservatoire at Lille; but after some difficulties with the administration he returned to Paris, and accepted a position as director of the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque Nationale. He subsequently published some works on numismatics and bibliography. His principal musical compositions are: "Marguerite et Faust," a lyric poem, Paris, 1847; "Le Moine," lyric poem, London, 1851; compositions for the piano, fugues, nocturnes, romances, and melodies; a practical treatise on harmony, and eighteen progressive solfeggios for three and four voices, commended by Fétis. Bibliography:Nouveau Larousse Illustré, s.v., Paris, 1900. And here's a translation of a eulogy given after his death by a colleague: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110101140951/http://www.sacra-moneta.com/Biographies-de-numismates/Henry-Cohen-1806-1880.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110101140951/http://www.sacra-moneta.com/Biographies-de-numismates/Henry-Cohen-1806-1880.html" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20110101140951/http://www.sacra-moneta.com/Biographies-de-numismates/Henry-Cohen-1806-1880.html</a> Henry Cohen (speech delivered on the tomb of Mr. Henry Cohen, in Bry-sur-Marne (Seine), Wednesday May 19, 1880, by Mr. Chabouillet. Death never tires of hitting the National Library. Not a month ago we were driving to his last home, one of the curators of the printed matter department, so cruelly tested for a few years, and, to speak only of that of the Medals, on March 13, 1878, I addressed to Saint-Mandé a final farewell to one of my collaborators, to my young and learned friend Camille de la Berge; and now, after barely two years, I find myself at the edge of a tomb which opens for one of the phalanx soldiers, yet so few in number, of whom I have the honor to be the chief. Alas! this is how ! Destiny does not spare the resurgent pain of seeing the best traveling companions fall to those it does not stop from the start of the journey. Mr. Henry Cohen, who has just died here on Monday, May 17, 1880, was born in Amsterdam on April 21, 1806. He therefore does not leave us as prematurely as Camille de la Berge; but M. Cohen's ardent activity prevented the years accumulating on his head from being counted, and gave us the hope of keeping him for a long time among us. Suddenly, however, fatal symptoms appeared and taught us that this apparently vigorous health was shaken. Last November, Mr. Cohen suffered from paralysis of his right hand. A few hours after this attack, Mr. Cohen was walking alone to the Cabinet des Medals. With the most philosophical simplicity, he told us about this "accident", and, showing his almost inert hand, told us that his doctor hoped to restore movement and elasticity, but in the meantime he would study writing with the left hand. Then he found a smile to complain about having experienced on the way another accident, - he had been knocked down by a car, - and, without further speech, went stoically to sit at his desk, where, the very moment , he was addressing a friend a painfully written letter with his left hand! Since that fatal day, despite the care with which he was surrounded by Mrs. Morin, his excellent daughter, as well as by Mr. Morin, his son-in-law, who was for him a son, Mr. Cohen has never recovered. On January 6 of this year, he almost succumbed to a first attack of another illness (suffocating catarrh); hardly had he recovered when new crises came to bring him down again. Mr. Cohen's robust constitution was undermined; but with a courage which was not contradicted for an instant, as soon as he arrived from the sufferings which did not overwhelm him until after repeated assaults, he returned to the Cabinet of medals, where he astonished colleagues and visitors by his resignation to a conclusion that 'he knew next, as well as by the presence of his mind and the persistence of his numismatic memory. Last Saturday, Mr. Cohen still appeared in the Medal Cabinet: he came to say goodbye to us, when leaving for Bry, where the doctors sent him to seek, if not cure, at least rest with his children. Alas! he should not come back! Mr. Cohen succumbed on May 17, 1880. I know almost nothing about Mr. Cohen before the time when he began to frequent the Cabinet of Medals, as an amateur, that is to say several years before the publication of his book on consular coins, which dates from 1857. I only know that he had a fortune from his family which first assured him independence. Gifted with very diverse abilities, Mr. Cohen had varied tastes. Bibliophile, he made a library of good and beautiful books; mineralogist, he gathered rare stones; numismatist, he collected Roman coins, especially consulars; a passionate musician, he was not only a remarkable performer, he was a composer and a learned theorist. Around 1834, M. Cohen played an opera, "the Empress", in Naples; in Paris and London, lyric scenes and romances which he often sang himself in the salons, and he is indebted for an excellent collection of fugues and learned treatises on harmony and counterpoint, where the competent judges grant to recognize qualities of first order, those that we find in the numismatist: clarity in the exposition of principles and rules, novelty and correctness in ideas. I note the success, which still lasts, of M. Cohen's works on music; I don't think of giving the slightest idea to those who listen to me. Of others will appreciate M. Cohen, musician, M. Cohen bibliophile, author of the "Guide to the amateur of eighteenth century vignette books", the 4th edition of which appeared the day before his death; I must confine myself to speaking of M. Cohen numismatist, of the one who, for more than twenty years, was my collaborator in the Cabinet of medals. In numismatics, especially from the practical point of view, M. Cohen was a master; so when, in 1859, setbacks forced him to give up his collections and ask for paid work for the resources he lacked, they hastened to open the doors of the Cabinet of Medals to him. Unfortunately, owing to the prescriptions of the regulations and budgetary necessities, M. Cohen, who began with the excessively modest use of supernumerary, did not cross the degrees which separated him from the grade as quickly as everyone would have wished. librarian, which he did not reach until 1875. In the first months of 1859, who saw him enter the National Cabinet, Mr. Cohen had published the first volume of the second of his great works, his "Description of imperial medals ", the second of which bears the same date. As we can see, these publications followed closely his work on "Consular medals" (here are the titles in full of these two excellent vademacum: 1 ° "General description of the coins of the Roman Republic, commonly called Consular medals" , by Henry Cohen (1 vol. in-4 with plates, Paris, 1857); 2 ° "Historical description of the coins minted under the Roman Empire, commonly called Imperial medals, by Henry Cohen (7 volumes, in-8, published: t. 1 and 2 in 1859; t 3 and 4 in 1860, tome 5 in 1861, t. 6 in 1862; finally, in 1868 t. 7 or supplement). Two thoughts had engaged M. Cohen to compose these great works: if he had wanted to be useful to amateurs, his colleagues, he had also had the ambition of erecting a monument in ancient Rome. Mr. Cohen could have taken the nickname of friend of the Romans which we read on the currencies of several Greek kings of Asia; he had almost a cult for the People-King, whose literature charmed him, whose laws and manners he advocated, sometimes with a bias whose war we waged against him, but which he defended with conviction and not without originality. It can be said, Mr. Cohen achieved the double goal he had pursued. Besides, sincerely modest, it is he himself who, in the preface to his "Consular Medals", declares that he had not thought of fighting science with the great numismatists of the past, Vaillant, Patin, Eckhel, and avour simply the claim that he hoped to justify, "to give a more accurate work, in terms of the integrity of the inscriptions and the authenticity of the documents, than all those that exist" ("Consular Medals", preface, page first). This claim, Mr. Cohen has fully justified in his works; he even exceeded it. If he was not superior to Eckhel, if the editor of simple directories, however perfect they may be, cannot be compared to the author of the "Doctrina numorum veterum", to the one he named himself " the great legislator of ancient numismatics "(Speaking of the principal of Eckhel's books, M. Cohen expressed himself thus:" ... the immortal "Doctrina nummorum veterum" of the great legislator of ancient numismatics, Eckhel ... . "(see" Description of the imperial medals ", preface, page II of the first edition), Mr. Cohen left far behind him most of the numismatists of the last century, and placed himself in the first ranks among those of ours . Now is not the time to analyze the works that taught the name of Henry Cohen to learned Europe. I will not even try to give an idea of the difficulties which there were to overcome, qualities, rare in degree to which Mr. Cohen possessed them, which it was necessary to join together to compose such vast repertoires, to make them too complete as possible, and at the same time imprint their stamp with incomparable accuracy. Despite his modesty, which, I repeat, was not feigned, Mr. Cohen was aware of the importance of the services he had rendered; and after all, the votes of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, which crowned him in 1862, would have revealed his merit if he had absolutely ignored himself. No, he knew that not everyone [portion appears to be missing] [French original says "Non, il savait bien que tout le monde n'aurait pu faire comme lui ses deux grands ouvrages," i.e., "No, he well knew that not everyone could have done, like he did, his two great works."] "Should I be taxed with excess," he wrote in this preface to his "Consular Medals" that I have just quoted, "I would say that, if it is difficult to write a scholarly numismatic book, it maybe even more to make a very accurate one. " I would say that there is more than accuracy to praise in the works of M. Cohen. The simplicity of the plan, the method, the clarity, make them advisers that one never finds, so to speak, never at fault. And when we think that the volume of "Consular Medals" includes 360 pages in-4 °, that the seven volumes of "Imperial Medals" include 4000, that in these countless descriptions, where nothing essential is omitted, there is not a useless word, that, as he had announced, the legends are reproduced with the most scrupulous accuracy, that the patience of the author has never failed him, we remain confused! Another merit of M. Cohen, and this is most considerable, is that, admittedly, one can refer to him, with regard to the authenticity of the medals admitted in his works. Great admirer of ancient art, gifted with amazing work skills, a most delicate tact, this tact which cannot be acquired, which one cannot even approach if one starts late occupying numismatics, Mr. Cohen had perfected the gifts he owed to nature by studying the methods of money making and by a long practice of numismatic monuments. But it was not only the tact, the safety and the rapidity of the glance which surprised Mr. Cohen; his numismatic memory was prodigious, and it was the [portion appears to be missing] [French original says "et c'était l'un des grands secrets de sa supériorité," i.e., "and it was one of the great secrets of his superiority"]. It will not be said, however, that there never crept an inaccuracy in his descriptions, an error in his explanations. Where is the man you could say, "He was never wrong"? What one can say of Mr. Cohen is that he was one of those who are very rarely mistaken, is that his books which, rightly, are authoritative, is that his articles too little many from the "Revue Numismatique" ("Essay on the true pronunciation of Latin, according to the ancient medals", year 1854, p. 293 to 304); "Notice on seven Roman medals", year 1860, p. 359 to 363; "From the numismatics of Pescennius Niger", year 1867, p. 432 to 445), have largely contributed to the progress of Roman numismatics, and thereby to those of [portion appears to be missing] [French original says "à ceux de l'histoire de Rome sous les consuls et sous les empereurs" -- i.e., "to that of the history of Rome under the consuls and under the emperors"]. Mr. Cohen's cult of Rome and Roman numismatics, large as it was, was not exclusive. If he did not do for Greece what he did so successfully for Rome, it is not that he never thought of it, and it is to be regretted that he did not have time for accomplish certain projects which he had often told me about. He would certainly have done well in his honor, because he knew and appreciated the medals of Greece as well as those of Rome. Gallic medals and coins from the Middle Ages are perhaps the only major series which did not correspond to his predilection for classical art, or to his ideas of humanist of the old rock; but he was too wise to deny its historical importance. To all the qualities I have just listed, Mr. Cohen added another, the first with us. He not only loved numismatics, he loved our dear Cabinet! It was with patriotic pride that he saw accumulate there the treasures due to the munificence of the State and to the gifts of amateurs, like Proper Dupré, the Duke of Luynes, the Viscount of Janzé, the Commander Opperman, the baron d'ailly. And what should not be forgotten, despite the number and diversity of occupations that filled his life, Mr. Cohen never forgot his duties to the State, and our inventory, including several volumes written by his hands, testifies the zeal with which he fulfilled his duties as a civil servant. Alas! this excellent collaborator is no longer! He will no longer attend our intimate deliberations; he will not finish this second edition of his "Imperial Medals", of which the first volume, barely distributed carries the vintage of the year which saw him die! Do mortals never live enough to see the accomplishment of their projects? Will it even be completed by another, this second edition? There is every reason to hope so. You will find the elements in his papers and on the margins of his copy; but it would be otherwise, we would not finish it, this second edition, nor would we publish that of his "Consular Medals" to which we hung and of which he sometimes spoke, than these two works, as he left, would be enough to keep his name alive as long as there are historians and archaeologists. Among us, at the Medal Cabinet, the memory of Henry Cohen will always be alive. We will never open one of his books, we will never recognize its fine and clear writing on our registers, without a thought of regret for the precious collaborator, for the man of good company, the man of the [easy] [original French word is "faicle" (sic) -- probably "facile" was intended] and sure trade, with whom we have spent so many years! May he rest in peace, the tireless worker! [To the best of my ability, I have corrected the translation, and restored the apparently missing portions, by looking at the French original.][/QUOTE]

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