Featured White Whale Acquired: Not the Usual Athens

Epic!

 

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Another WOW from me. I just don't have the words.......

 

Yes, it is a fantastic coin and worth whatever you had to pay. I do not understand why someone owning that coin would sell it in a lesser publicized auction since, properly presented, this one should bring on a real bidding war.

Not wishing to be too pushy but: the owner of that coin really needs to own one of the relatively few official fourrees from that same emergency. The problem with them is the vast majority of dealers do not know how to separate coins of the emergency from ordinary, unofficial fourrees from the periods before and after. I have seen several listed but my opinion (which means nothing) does not accept all of them as genuine 406 BC style. Svoronos plate 15 shows two of your type, several other golds, some tetradrachms and a few drachms. I would love to know if experts whose opinion most certainly outranks mine still accept all of his fourrees as correct here.
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I hope you are not tempted to cash in on this one. It strikes me as a keeper.

 

What a fascinating little piece of history! Congrats on the score!

 

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the compliments and the ability to share with the group!

I too was very surprised to see this consigned to Stack's. It was consigned by John Whitney Walter's estate: he passed away earlier this year. He had an extensive collection of ancients (and US: he was "Mr 1796") including the "Men of Rome" collection of aurei which Stack's sold in 1990. At that time, Stack's was a premier auction house for ancients but these days that isn't the case. All of the coins in this consignment were slabbed and had 90s-era estimates in many cases. My guess is that he had long-ago written that Stack's should sell his remaining coins and never revised it.

I will certainly attempt to find a definitively attributed fourree but it will be challenging as a few of the ones I've been offered either jumped out to me as blatant fakes or an incorrect style. The ANS has a few fourree tetradrachms and one of these days I need to inspect their fabric in person to get a better feel of real ones as I'm skeptical of all but a few of the ones that have sold publicly in the last ~10 years.

This coin is absolutely a keeper for me. I'll see many Eid Mar denarii in the next few decades but very well may never have an opportunity to purchase Athens gold from this period again. With most types, there exists a duality: a number of examples will be sold at auction and a handful will trickle out privately to eventually resurface. Outside of Berk who sold this coin to Whitney Walter in the 90s, I haven't been able to find a single dealer who has sold an example privately, despite querying the usual suspects who have 40-50+ years of experience. I wouldn't be surprised if another shows up eventually from some old European collection but who knows how long that may take.

 

I saw the one on display at the Met in NY... never in a million years expected to see one at auction! Congrats!

 

It is indeed about 10mm, and a thin piece. I didn't trust myself to crack it out of the NGC holder without potentially risking it so I had Heritage use their industrial C-clamp and expertise to break it free for me

 

Thanks for posting this image! I hadn't come across it online but this is the best depiction I've seen.

 

That is a stellar coin. I've seen tons of silver Attica Athens coins and quite honestly figured they never struck anything in gold as I've never seen a gold piece from there. That's one of the great things about this hobby - always learning.

Curiosity led me to this one sold in Triton XII as Lot: 246 back in 2009 and at that time they reported "one of only five known, and the sole example not in a museum collection". I sure am glad this one appeared on the market for you and even happier you won it. I'm sure the agony of anticipation to hold that in your hands was even greater than the excitement you felt in the run up to your win.

Congratulations!
-dougA

 

Fascinating write up and coin

 

Very nice!

 

What happened to them? Were they gathered up and melted back down, or is there a hoard somewhere waiting to be found?

 

You've outdone yourself, as usual!!

 

How did this coin first pop up on your radar? Did you read about the coin specifically, or was it through a history of the Peloponnesian war? Did a dealer or collector mention it? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Speechless! What a superb coin! Not just a white whale! You beat Moby-Dick, indeed, @AncientJoe !

 

Dude, that’s an amazing coin. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

They had a specific use in commerce (to raise a navy for Athens against Sparta and to cover other war costs) and for that reason, they were melted down rather quickly.

There's always the possibility that a hoard exists but because Athens was so strapped for cash and kept meticulous records of what was melted, it would probably only be coins given to an individual which would inherently be relatively few in number due to their value.

Based on the scarcity in the private market as well as in public sales, I don't think there are many others floating around.

 

Just awestruck. Truly one of the greatest stories of an ancient coin that I've heard. You say last time it was for sale was the 90s...now we know what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase!

 

I first learned about the existence of these types from looking through old catalogs. The Athens gold that stuck in my mind most prominently was from Leu 83 and its subsequent sale in 2008 at NGSA with a much more beautiful picture. That coin sold for almost $1M so I effectively lost hope.

In 2009, Triton sold the other collectible gold diobol (to a certain infamous customer of CNG). We became friends a couple years after that sale and while chatting about coins, he indicated that this coin was his favorite coin and favorite type. Considering the extent of his collection, it was quite an endorsement. Knowing that smaller denominations were "available" also rekindled my hope in acquiring an example: I had heard of this John Walter Whitney coin as well even though it wasn't included in the census in 2009.

Not including the type in the "100 Greatest Ancient Coins" book is a major omission in my eyes but is probably just because there is minimal commercial benefit to have included it, knowing how infrequently they change hands.

 

For those of us who like the two owl design but fall a bit short of buying the gold, Athens had an AE12 version issued about a century later. Mine was $21.12 postpaid but a decent one with both owls on flan and a more detailed obverse would 5x to 10x that. Athenian AE are a lot harder to find nice than are the tetradrachms but nothing like as rare as the gold. Does anyone know if the Nikes that were melted to give us AJ's coin were solid or gold over a structure like the big Athena was?