FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board

Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Coin of the Day => Topic started by: featherz on January 24, 2005, 11:24:26 am

Title: Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: featherz on January 24, 2005, 11:24:26 am
A common coin, but a long provenance from the 1800's (if I am looking these up correctly).  My husband tells me that Sir Hermann Weber was the physician to the queen and best friends with a man alleged to be Jack the Ripper, but I haven't verified any of that. :)  I believe John Work Garrett was an important railroad bigshot?

SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria. Antioch. Elagabalus. 218-222 AD. Æ 32mm (21.24 gm, 12h). AVT K M AV AN TWNINOC E E, laureate bust right, slight drapery on far shoulder / ANTIOX EWN M KOLW, Tyche of Antioch seated left, holding grain ears river god Orontes below, ram running left above; D E above S C across field. BMC Galatia etc. pg. 206, 459; L&K 2008; Weber 7969 (this coin).

(Triton VIII) -- From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex John Work Garrett Collection III (Leu/Numismatic Fine Arts 29 March 1984), lot 468 (part of); Sir Hermann Weber Collection; William Webster Collection.


Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: whitetd49 on January 24, 2005, 11:50:33 am
Featherz!  You call that ordinary?  A plate coin and a wonderful specimen!
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: curtislclay on January 24, 2005, 11:52:20 am
Heather,
     Nice coin!
     Who is it that your husband meant as the suspected Jack the Ripper?  
     I recently read a book quite convincingly proposing a new candidate, but hadn't known there was a numismatic connection!
Regards,
Curtis
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: Jerome Holderman on January 24, 2005, 11:54:14 am
Featherz!  You call that ordinary?  A plate coin and a wonderful specimen!

My thoughts exactly!! Great Coin!!
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: featherz on January 24, 2005, 11:58:07 am
The candidate he was putting up was Sir William Gull- as stated here: http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18900130.html (http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18900130.html)

"Sir William was soon after removed to bed, where he received every attendance from Dr. Hermann Weber, an old friend, Dr. Charles D. Hood, his regular medical attendant, and Dr. Acland, his son-in-law."

I'm not very familiar with the story, but apparently Sir William Gull was one of the Ripper candidates.
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: the_Apostate on January 26, 2005, 05:31:11 am
You lucky girl! You must have been one of the very few to win a coin below the estimate on that mad drinking bout of the reckless spendthrifts - Triton VIII -   :( Nice coin btw.
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: curtislclay on January 26, 2005, 11:41:56 am
    Sir William Gull sounds like an interesting man, but a non-starter as a Ripper candidate!
    The book I read proposed an artist, a pupil of Whistler I believe, whose name I will add if I remember and can find the book.
     Yes, Walter Sickert, as Apostate and Darcy suggest.
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: the_Apostate on January 26, 2005, 12:09:53 pm
   The book I read proposed an artist, a pupil of Whistler I believe,whose name I will add if I remember and can find the book.

Most likely, Walter Sickert, proposed by Ruth Rendell who barbariously cut up some of his paintings to look for evidence.
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: ember on January 26, 2005, 12:14:59 pm
Hi,

I believe the artist was Walter Sickert.  My most likely suspect is Francis Tumblety.

Darcy
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: featherz on January 26, 2005, 12:33:23 pm
My husband got the idea from one of the ripper movies, which has Sir Gull as the bad guy. There appears to be a long royal conspiracy associated this which probably did not occur, but it's interesting none the less. :)

Here's an interesting article from court tv regarding Sir Gull.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/conspiracy_12.html?sect=1

However it does say at the end..

"Regarding Dr. Gull's ability to be Jack the Ripper, Donald Rumbelow in The Complete Jack the Ripper points out:

"Medically the slight stroke that Gull had in 1887 was the first attack of severe paralysis. Although he recovered from it, its effects were serious enough to prohibit him from further medical practice. Taken with the fact that he was 70 years old at this time, this is surely enough to cast doubts on the story of his roaming about Whitechapel. Finally, Gull did not die in a lunatic asylum. He died at home on 29 January 1890, after a third stroke which left him speechless.""



Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: featherz on January 26, 2005, 12:36:04 pm
One more question unrelated to Jack the Ripper :) - Provenence also references a William Webster. Is this the dictionary Webster or a more modern unrelated person? I found easy mention that the other two noteables collected coins, but nothing on Webster.
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: curtislclay on January 26, 2005, 12:48:23 pm
Weber 7969 records the source of the coin as "Webster Sale, 1886".
That is catalogue 1886, 36 in British Num. Auction Catalogues, p. 156: Sotheby, 22-23 Dec. 1886, the late William Webster.
I don't know anything else about Mr. Webster, except that, since he died before Dec. 1886, he can't have been Jack the Ripper!
Title: Re:Rather ordinary COTD :)
Post by: slokind on January 26, 2005, 08:18:27 pm
Just to save anyone else the trouble, I checked the List of Contributors (to the 11th edition, 1910, and many from the 9th, 1885) in the General Index volume of the Britannica.  No William Webster.  Also, he didn't get any article in vol. 26, however so brief, nor is he mentioned in any other article.  It is rather remarkable for any learned person to have escaped contributing anything at all.  So I guess he was just one of the quiet ones.  Needless to say, I don't have the National Dictionary of Biography, whose very title I may have mis-cited here, but I mean the old Sir Leslie Stephen, et al., work (there is also a new one).  Pat Lawrence