Dear friends of
ancient coins!
Behrendt Pick (1861-1940) was one of the most important
German numismatists.
His work on the
ancient coins of northern
Greece is
still the fundamental reference
work for coins from Markianopolis or Nicopolis, for example.
As co-author of the monograph by
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov, The Coinage of
Nicopolis ad Istrum, which has been published in English since 2011, I stand in
his shadow, so to speak, at least I have
his work in my hand almost every day. However, the number of known
types has multiplied - especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain. While
Behrendt Pick in 898
still knew 890
types of
Nikopolis, by 2023 we already have 2822 different
types listed, with no end in sight. But I admire the accuracy and reliability of
his descriptions, which are
still an unrivalled example of scientific rigour today.
I am all the more pleased when I can improve my model, which happens rarely enough. In
his descriptions of the
bust,
Pick did not specify whether it was seen from the front or the back because there was only one
type in
his time. When more
types appeared, this information was missing, partly because there were too few illustrations, which is regrettable. Now we have not only described all the
types, but also illustrated them. And the description of the following coin needs to be
corrected.
The coin:Moesia inferior,
Nicopolis ad Istrum,
Elagabal, 218-222
AE 24, 8.8g
struck under the governor Novius Rufus
Obv.:
AVT K M AVPH - ANTΩNEINOC
Bust, draped and
cuirassed, seen from behind,
radiate, r.
Rev.: VΠ NOBIOV POVΦOVOV N - IK - OΠOΛITΩN ΠPOC I
in the upper left
field below each other CTPO / N
The emperor in
military dress and wearing a
radiate crown standing
to the left, resting on the spear with
his raised left hand and holding
in
his outstretched right hand
patera over a flaming, wreathed
altarRef.: a)
AMNG I/1, 1986 (3 copies,
Gotha, Mandl)
b)
Varbanov 4023
c)
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2023) No. 8.26.34.4
not common, almost VF, brown
patinaPick writes "about a flaming wreathed
altar" and I
had also adopted this for our Nicopolis monograph. But if you take a closer look at the
altar, you can see that it is not a flaming
altar, but that
military equipment is lying on the
altar! For example, a helmet with cheek flaps can be seen on the right and perhaps a helmet with a raised visor on the left (Thanks to mauseus and clueless).
These offerings certainly come from defeated enemies. All in all, it is an unusual depiction that I have never seen before. It shows once again that one should look closely at the details of a coin, and it surprises again what one can discover on the coins of Nicopolis. Of course, the description of this coin must be
corrected accordingly.
Biography:Behrendt Pick was born on 21 December 1861 in what was then Prussian Posen and died on 4 May 1940 in
Berlin. After attending the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium, he went to
Berlin and studied
history,
classical studies and archaeology at the forerunner of today's Humboldt University.
His teacher was the great Theodor
Mommsen, under whom he gained
his doctorate with
his thesis "
De senatus consultis Romanorum". It was also
Mommsen who recommended him to
work on the major project "
The Ancient Coins of Northern Greece", which was led by Imhof-Blumer. There was a falling out with
Mommsen, but Imhof-Blumer became
his mentor in Winterthur/Switzerland and provided him with a scholarship through
his own foundation. The two were very similar in their way of thinking, their universality and their interdisciplinarity. In 1889 he went to Zurich as a private lecturer, habilitated and became associate professor of
Roman antiquities,
history and
numismatics.
In 1893, he was appointed to the ducal
library at Friedenstein Castle in
Gotha, where he was in charge of the coin cabinet. In 1917 he was appointed Privy Court Councillor, in 1928 State Archivist and Director of the
Library. He worked in
Gotha for 41 years and influenced international research from there. "
Die antiken Münzen von Dacien und Mösien" is not only
his main
work, but also a fundamental
work of
numismatics. He travelled to
Athens,
Constantinople,
Milan,
Rome and
Venice and was in contact with all the great scholars of
his time. Thanks to him, the
Gotha Coin Cabinet became one of the most important
collections in
Germany and was internationally recognised. He
signed the preface to
his main
work "
Gotha, 31 October 1898,
Behrendt Pick"
From 1896, he was an associate professor at the University of Jena with a teaching assignment in
Gotha, and from 1911 he was an honorary professor of
antiquities and
numismatics. In
his last year of teaching, probably in 1932, he was elected an honorary member of the Swiss Numismatic Society and in 1935 he received the Royal Numismatic Society's
Medal of Honour, one of the highest honours to be awarded.
In the meantime, however, National Socialism
had already covered
Germany like a shroud. He was forced to retire against
his will and in 1933 he was stripped of all
his offices because of
his Jewish faith. The law alone, which forbade
Jewish students from doing a doctorate, must have affected him deeply. But like so many other
Jewish Germans, he failed to recognise the danger posed by Hitler. He believed that
his scientific reputation would protect him. What a mistake! In 1936, Mr and Mrs
Pick moved to
Berlin, where they thought they would be safer.
Behrendt Pick died on 3 May 1940. 2 years later, when the first transports of Jews were already travelling from
Berlin to the KZ Theresienstadt,
his wife Gertrud took her own life.
In 2021, 2 Stolpersteine were laid in memory of the couple at Reinhardsbrunner Straße 45 in
Gotha, where they lived from 1915-1936. The Stolpersteine are a project by artist Gunter Demnig that began in 1992. Small memorial plaques laid in the ground, known as Stumbling Stones, are intended to commemorate the
fate of people who were persecuted, murdered, deported, expelled or driven to suicide during the National Socialist era. In May 2023, the 100,000th Stolperstein was laid in
Germany.
I have added a photo of the lifelike
portrait bust of
Behrendt Pick, probably by
Victor Embser (Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein
Gotha, Photo: David
Koch)
Sources:(1)
Behrendt Pick, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands (
AMNG),
Berlin, 1898
(2)
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov, The Coinage of
Nicopolis ad Istrum, Blagoevgrad 2023
(3) TSURIKRUFN! - A reminiscence of the
Jewish numismatist Behrendt Pick (4)
WikipediaBest regards
Jochen