Dr. Elberling was a
German army doctor who was born in 1797 in Silesia, and retired to Luxembourg. He began collecting coins in 1842, after
his retirement, and he published ten articles on "The most important
Roman Coins in my
Collection" in a Luxembourg scientific journal, 1862-1874 (the last
posthumous, and with an obituary, whence I derive these facts). He died in
Dec. 1873, and
his collection, comprising 775
gold coins, over 1000
Republican denarii, c. 2700
Roman imperial
denarii, c. 5500 bronze coins, and c. 100 medallions in the various metals, was acquired by the
Paris coin dealer Rollin &
Feuardent. He particularly sought
rare and unpublished coins, and it was 547 coins of this sort that he published in
his articles, with 24 plates of quite accurate line drawings.
Cohen, and after Cohen's death
Feuardent, of course drew on Elberling's ten articles when compiling the second edition of Cohen's famous
Roman imperial
catalogue.
Victor's coin is a common one, which presumably never formed
part of Elberling's core
collection. According to
his posthumous article of 1874, he
had 43
Urbs Roma and
Constantinopolis coins in
his collection, including one with
mintmark TR.P from Trier, presumably not the same coin that he gave
his Dutch friend in 1869. He even wrote an essay on these commemorative coins in Zeitschrift für Münzkunde,
Berlin.
