Today I recieved a new book or
catalog It was a
work in
Simon Bendall's library. The seller described it as interesting.
Byzantine Copper Coins described as" A small
collection of Byzantine copper coins including a number from Western Mints, a few of considerable
rarity and some of great interest which cannot at present be attributed."
The
collection was from
Michael Dennis O'hara, one of the cowriters of
Byzantine Coins and their values. The others
David Sear and
Simon Bendall.
So I immediately check it out, I wanted to see the unattributed, I also saw it
had a Alexius II coin and I wanted to see that too (No Alexius II coins are known.) first thing, it is not a book but a preparation for
auction catalog, when this
auction occurred, or if it occurred, I do not know. The author
had passed away in 2014. The pages are large cut outs of the coins 5x times actual size, this must have been a prep before printing.
In the upper right of the photo the
REX coin now attributed to Richard the
Lion Heart in
Cyprus. When this
catalog was written it was thought to be Alexius II Comnenus.
Now one of these coins caught my attention, the small
tetarteron on the middle of the second page,
my first thought I have one of those, then I looked more closely, it is my coin. A Latin tetarteron. ( Center Coin.)
So at the end of the day I got a new and interesting book, my coin that was purchased last year as a unknown coin from Heidelberger Münzhandlung
Herbert Grün e. K.
Now suddenly has a new provenance, as being from the collection of one of the contributors to SBCV. Dennis Michael Ohara. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=173323Part of
his bio describing where
his collection was sold on the DO web site. I am sure I could do a
bit of looking and find it but no idea how they labeled it.
His collection, including the
Tiber hoard coins, was sold in a joint-auction by Leu Numismatik and Numismatica Ars Classica in Zürich on 26 May 1993, partly to the then famous
antiquities dealer Robin Symes. After
his death, a few coins from
his Nachlass appeared in
Morton and Eden 75, 2 July 2015, where DO bought two 7th-century silver coins struck in Sardinia (BZC.2015.043 and BZC.2015.044).
Just a story I wanted to share.