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Author Topic: Documenting small hoards seen in commerce?  (Read 1164 times)

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Offline rjohara

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Documenting small hoards seen in commerce?
« on: March 16, 2006, 03:09:04 pm »
Every now and then I notice a group of coins on eBay or elsewhere that certainly look like they came from the same source: similar patination, appearing together, of similar or related types, etc. If these groups were indeed found together, there seem to be two very unfortunate circumstances involved: first, the exact findspot is probably lost to history, and second, the association of the coins together as a group is usually lost once they are dispersed onto the market. If I were rich, I'd probably buy up any such apparent hoards and donate them to a museum, but alas, I'm not.

Is it possible and/or practical and/or desirable to document in some way these small groups that appear in online commerce? Does anyone attempt to do it already in a systematic manner? I do know, for example, that there is a series of volumes called Coin Hoards (now up to vol. 9 at least) that publish current and retrospective reports of hoards; it's a product of the Royal Numismatic Society. Has anyone here submitted information to them? Years ago when coins were sold almost entirely through printed dealer catalogs, there was some record of things that came on the market; but now, with many things appearing online, such records are very easly lost forever. I believe we should all regard ourselves as just the temporary custodians of the coins we collect, and I hope that they will all be in safe hands 500 years from now, as well cared for then as we care for them now, and hopefully even better understood then than they are now. It seems to me we have an obligation to prevent information from being lost whenever possible. Recent reports of medieval and Roman coin finds in Britain illustrate how things ought to work: the finder has ownership rights, and the local and national museums have the right of first purchase. But even where such policies are not in place, coins that look like associated finds should be documented in some way whenever possible.

Offline Steve Minnoch

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Re: Documenting small hoards seen in commerce?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2006, 04:50:16 pm »
I think most of the value of documenting these finds has already gone by the time they make the market.  You will have absolutely no idea if what you see represents all of a find, or only part of it - and maybe the best (or worst) part at that.  You would also have only a vague (at best) idea of where the findspot might be, no idea in what it might have been stored.

Steve

Offline rjohara

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Re: Documenting small hoards seen in commerce?
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2006, 06:21:43 pm »
You will have absolutely no idea if what you see represents all of a find, or only part of it - and maybe the best (or worst) part at that.  You would also have only a vague (at best) idea of where the findspot might be, no idea in what it might have been stored.

Yes, I'd concede that all these points are true, and also that some hoards may tell us nothing. But even partial information, in the right circumstances -- especially in matters of attribution -- can be extremely important. As a hypothetical example, consider the Mygissos/Myus/Myndos mystery discussed in this thread:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=23747.0

If two or three of these coins of uncertain origin turned up, say, in a partial hoard of coins from Myndos, then we'd have a pretty strong piece of evidence for attribution to Myndos. You might say one such association isn't enough; I'd agree. But that's why documention of even partial hoards seems important to me: one partial result today; another two years from now; another two years later. Pretty soon, we'd have a lot more confidence than we now do with respect to a questionable attribution.

 

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