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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2519661, member: 19463&quot;]In 1993, Numismatic Fine Arts auctioned a collection of 3500 coins divided into 352 lots. These lots, some individual coins and some large lots, realized between $39 and $800 so it is obvious that any rarities included were not popular or expensive. The lots were sold complete with the envelope and information tag of the collector who often included the envelope of the dealer from whom he had purchased the coin. The collection was formed in Germany between 1890 and 1930. In January, 1994, Victor Failmezger wrote an article on the collection for the <a href="mailto:celator@aol.com">Celator</a> magazine (Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 14f). He noted that the collector had made many of his envelopes and tags from scrap paper and card stock. Victor even reconstructed a business card from twelve pieces that had been used on the back side for tags. The coin below is shown with an envelope fashioned from scrap paper still bearing part of a German postage stamp. The tag is from a scrap of green cardboard. Whoever the collector, he chose to spend his limited funds on coins rather than supplies.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/bava.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Constantius II AE2 Centenionalis from the Bavarian Collection (#2799)</p><p>Siscia mint, 3rd officina, Cohen 142 (3 francs value)</p><p><br /></p><p>It is interesting that the collector noted on his envelope the mintmark and field letter information. In fact, the contents of the collection suggested that he believed in collecting these issues by mintmark. Many of the coins from the Bavarian collection that I have seen were in better condition than this one. I believe the collector sought out the best specimen of each variety that he could find or afford but preferred to have an example that was less than perfect to having no coin at all.</p><p><br /></p><p>The example above shows the coin was obtained on Feb 15, 1902, but I can&#039;t make out the name of the source.&nbsp; I just had a sinking feeling that I have been selling off some lesser late Roman coins (some through JA sales) but did not check to see that none were from the Bavarian coins I have.&nbsp; I have better coins of many of the same types but I still consider these special due to the love they were shown a century ago.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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