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Message:: [QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 3549191, member: 99554"]I laugh every time I see under my CT’s avatar the title « well known member ». It’s funny because I’m only « well known » by the members of my family....But it’s true that over centuries many collectors were first famous not because of their love for numismatic. So just for fun, let me present you some of them. I concentrated my research on Roman coin collectors, since it’s my passion. We will start with an emperor, 2 kings, a president and...a pope. Augustus  63 BC- 14 AD [ATTACH=full]943117[/ATTACH] It was a tradition in ancient Rome and Greece to offer coins as gift during some festivities.Ovid, a roman poet who was a contemporary of the first emperor of Rome, reported in his writings that Augustus perpetuated such a custom. The historian Suetonius recorded the same thing about him : « On the Saturnalia, and at any other time when he took it into his head, he would now give gifts of clothing or gold and silver :again coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money ». We can easily  imagine he had a variety of republican coins, probably greek ones as well in his collections.. King Louis XIV of France 1638-1715 [ATTACH=full]943121[/ATTACH] Called the « sun king », Louis XIV was on the throne for 72 years. During his long reign, France was the leading European power. But even kings have hobbys. It is reported  he enjoyed so much the French Royal Coins Collection that he visited it daily, saying « I always find something new to learn ». He was also a collector of works of arts , specially of ancient coins. But the guy seemed to be a bit stingy. Even if He was rich as Croesus , he wasn’t willing to spend his money  to expand his collections. I had inherited many roman bronzes from his family or from his predecessors. Of course, King Louis didn’t see any problems in accepting gifs from the noble ones who came to court him in his castle...For example, it is reported that in 1689,  Charles Errard, director of the french Academy in Rome, gave the monarch 72 roman bronzes as a present for his majesty. Here is a picture of one of his cabinets, where he kept coins from his collection. [ATTACH=full]943122[/ATTACH] President John Quincy Adams 1767-1848 [ATTACH=full]943123[/ATTACH] To be precise, the collection was started by his father, John Adams (2nd President of the US ). But John Quincy made it grow in an amazing way. The Adams family numismatic collection was maintained by the Mass.Historical Society for many years, and then transferred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where Corneleus Vermeule , the well known numismatist ,oversaw its cataloging. The historical society finally decided to sell coins to raise money to catalog and microfilm the Adams family documents , and the auction house Stack’s was the lucky winner chosen to oversee the sales held in 1971 and 1973. I remember that some members here on CT have in their possession coins from John Quincy Adams collection. [ATTACH=full]943133[/ATTACH] Here is a link for more details about Stack’s sale :<a href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=516470" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=516470" rel="nofollow">https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=516470</a> King  Victor Emmanuel III of Italy 1869-1947 [ATTACH=full]943138[/ATTACH] He was king of Italy from 1900 to his abdication in 1946. At the age of 12, he became interested in numismatic by the influence of his tutor. Over 400 letters written by Victor Emmanuel to Colonel Osio still exist in the Italian’s archives. They were discussing together about coins, new acquisitions and books. When he left for Egypt in 1946, he gave his 100000 coins collection to the people of Italy. They were dating from the fall of the Roman empire in the west to the unification of the Italy , issued by Italian mints, in Italy and abroad. The King also left his biggest  achievement of his life : the 20 volumes of the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum , which he edited personnaly, with the help of a number of successive numismatic secretaries. The collection itself is an extraordinary source of reference, each coins having a ticket handwritten by the king, recording provenance, auction or dealer with prices, or name of donors. [ATTACH=full]943139[/ATTACH] The 20 volumes in a special cabinet Pope Paul II 1417-1471 [ATTACH=full]943142[/ATTACH] This pope was not only an enthusiastic collector, but also an expert in matters of arts. « He was able at the glance to tell where an ancient coin came from, and give the name of the prince whose image it bore ». Many years before he became pope in 1464, Pietro Barbo was an outstanding collector of bronze statuettes, gems and coins. He is even described as a « avaricious coin collector ». The Cardinal collected about a hundred ancient gold, and a thousand ancient silver coins. From the window of his palace, Paul II looked down to the magnificent processions « which represented the triumphs of the ancient  Roman Emperors, a favorite theme of the imagination of the period ». No inventory was made when he died, and so the full extent of his collection can not be determined. So even if most of us can be qualified of « perfect strangers », it’s interesting to know that our favorite hobby was a passion for kings and powerful people. If you have coins that have been owned by  famous characters, please feel free to post them here ! [/QUOTE]

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