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Author Topic: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!  (Read 94793 times)

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Offline Andrew McCabe

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van Hooff 1949 aes grave and a likely Haeberlin
« Reply #125 on: February 07, 2016, 12:01:49 pm »
A delightful find this afternoon:



Schulman 29 March 1949 lot 33, A.H. Drijfhout van Hooff collection. As it's a coin I bought relatively recently, privately, without provenance, cheap, and it's in exceptional condition, a really marvelous find. What led me to check the catalogue was a message I was writing on a different topic to someone who asked whether I had the catalogue; the related message also discussed the following coin:



Triton XII (2009), AK Collection item A154. Those who know the AK coins will realise they were stuffed with definite and probable Haeberlin provenances. Haeberlin lists this type at the same weight 3.95grams, and in VF, which this would have graded in 1933. And it looks the right quality..

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #126 on: February 07, 2016, 01:53:09 pm »
Yep, those AK group lots are full of great provenances. I bought one at last year's NYINC auction with a 1959 Munzhandlung Button provenance. I've bought several former AK Alexandrian coins with good provenances as well (Steger, Dattari, etc).

That was great luck finding the aes grave triens. While it is in exceptional preservation, because of the casting flaw, I might have expected fixed price list provenance rather than auction provenance.

Offline carthago

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #127 on: February 08, 2016, 03:36:11 pm »
This weekend, I went through my RBW Library lots that finally arrived last week.  I think my favorite acquisition is Mionnet's price guide.  2 little books that run the gamut of Roman coins from the Republic onwards.  Prices are in French Francs and there are some highly accurate line drawings.  For instance, the aureus of Labienus is the coin currently in the British museum, but it was acquired by the BM in 1867 and my edition of Mionnet is 1827 so it was published while still in private hands.   Neat stuff!!

Here's the auction description which does better than I can:

Mionnet, T.E. DE LA RARETÉ ET DU PRIX DES MÉDAILLES ROMAINES, OU RECEUIL CONTENANT LES TYPES RARES ET INÉDITS DES MÉDAILLES D’OR, D’ARGENT ET DE BRONZE, FRAPPÉES PENDANT LA DURÉE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE ET DE L’EMPIRE ROMAIN. Seconde edition. Paris, 1827. Two volumes, complete. 8vo, contemporary matching blue quarter calf with mottled boards; flat spine ruled and lettered in gilt. (4), xxiv, 420; (4), 571, (1) pages; engraved frontispiece plate; 38 additional engraved plates of coins. Spotted; very good or better. The scarce second edition of the first substantial guide book to the value of coins, now augmented with handsomely engraved plates of coins. First published in 1815, with a more commonly encountered third edition in 1858


Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #128 on: February 08, 2016, 08:51:17 pm »
Nice set, Carthago! Congratulations.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted old catalogue acquisitions to this thread, but it’s not for lack of new material. I’ve acquired several nice additions recently, including a few from the RBW sale:

1.   Hess (1912), Tolstoy Collection. A rare and desirable catalogue and one of Spring’s top catalogues for struck Republican coins. I bid on another copy of this catalogue last year and lost, so I was particularly happy to get this copy. Ex RBW Library.

2.   Hamburger (1925), Niklovitz Collection. Ex RBW Library. Also on Spring’s top list.

3.   Ars Classica XI, Levis Collection (1925). This replaces a poor condition copy that I acquired last year and is hand priced in ink. Ex RBW Library.

4.   Ars Classica XVII, Burrage Collection (1934). An excellent condition copy. Ex RBW Library.

5.   R. Ratto FPLs: I’ve picked up several Rodolfo Ratto fixed-price lists, including number I (Hadrian and his Family – 1931), number II (Palestine - 1932) and number VIII (Republic – 1933).  These are in addition to two already in my collection. My goal is to assemble all 9 of the lists containing ancient coins in this series of 23 Ratto FPLs.

6.     M. Ratto, Prof. Giorgio Giorgi Collection (1955). A fine collection of aes grave, Republican and Imperial coins.

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #129 on: February 09, 2016, 07:14:59 pm »
Michael

Some great additions. From this set, I've found 2 (Niklovitz) and 5 (Ratto FPL VIII 1933) to be especially useful as in having coins that look like my collection - even if they aren't!

I've just completed a one-week long trawl through every one of CNG's printed auctions, from CNA1 on May 1st 1987 through CNG101 = Triton 19 this January. I scored 99 coins with provenances from these printed CNG sales (sometimes multiple), with the earliest being an aes grave as from CNA5 on Dec.9th 1988. I still have to do - a task for perhaps another year - the CNG Reviews, their web-shop and e-auctions. Of the 99 provenances, about one third were previously unknown to me, and about two thirds involved coins I originally purchased at a later date than their first appearance in a CNG sale (though sometimes from a later CNG sale), hence these provenances (either confirming, or finding for the first time) involved a trip back in time. For those wishing to do the same searches, CNA1 to about CNG50 are on issuu.com (google with the CNG number) and from about CNG60 onwards on their own website. That means there's a bit of a gap, but luckily my home library coverage bridged it.

Today I started on NAC. This kicked off well, with two from NAC1 (29 March 1989), neither previously known to me. I illustrate them below. Unlike CNG, which sold pretty modest quality ancients until they merged with Seaby - who seemingly brought the quality and connections to the deal - NAC started on a high note. My two NAC1 coins illustrated below the fold. Curiously the top one was provenanced in a much later NAC auction as "privately purchased in 1989". So much for not losing key provenances!

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #130 on: February 12, 2016, 11:14:32 am »
Below is a picture of the setup I use when I'm working on provenances. The relevant catalogue lies flat on my keyboard, whilst on the screen I scroll through my collection arranged in Crawford numbers. For those catalogues arranged in "family name" order, usually the anonymous types come first which I can check in Crawford order, and then I do a search on each name in turn: Aburia, Accolleia, etc. On the paper catalogue page, for each coin in turn I verify that it's a mismatch [sic]; I do this either using mental recognition of a very specific aspect of my coin that doesn't match. "my Crepusius has control letter S behind head, and this doesn't"; "my L.SATVRN is from the finer style engraver and this is from the cruder style engraver"; "my Dream of Sulla has a double scratch control mark before the face and flatness to the angel's head, this coin has neither"; "my Herennia has a perfectly centered obverse with a full border visible and this doesn't"; "my OPEI as has the O of OPEI touching the edge at 10pm and this doesn't". I've effectively memorised one key fact about each of my coins that rules out 95% of possible matches. In those cases where either I can't remember my coin's nickname so to speak, or there is a vague resemblance that I can't rule out, or I can't otherwise rule out a coin on page, I scroll through my photo listings until I find my coin. I then first check for edge cracks and offstrikes, either of which can quickly rule out a coin, and then for border-circle intersection with the coin's border, and only if these haven't ruled it out do I check carefully for a possible match. My provenance pickup rate runs at about 1/200 coins - in a 200 coin Roman Republican sale I typically find one provenance with quite some variation. As I rule out 95% just on a preliminary mismatch check, about one in ten coins where I need to do a close check with my piece on screen proves a match. This is a good enough ratio to maintain an incentive; two hours solid work on provenances usually yields between one and several hits. It's mentally tiring so 2 hours is about as much as I can do in a day; and I usually close up just after I've recorded a hit. On the page below, I just scored a hit: my AVR semis RRC 65/3, previously unprovenanced, is NAC9 (16 Apr.1996) lot 574. It sold for CHF 1500, at estimate. I paid £56 for it. It's 'value' (if coins can be considered to have an intrinsic value) probably lies somewhere between. As I've just scored this hit, I'm taking a break. Each coloured tab sticking from the left of the volume I'm checking is an NAC provenance, from some or other sale prior to NAC9.

Addendum: a test run on one catalogue: NAC H (30 April 1998), contents 330 Roman Republican coins. I was aware from my spreadsheet of two provenances within, both which I checked and marked. I found three more: a denarius with gryphon symbol RRC 182, a double-curule chair denarius RRC 434, and a semis with eagle and wreath; the latter was already provenanced to a Kuenker sale in 2007 but this added 9 more years. Both the denarii had no known provenances prior to my purchase in 2009 / 2014 respectively. Good finds. I marked them both in the catalogue using post it tabs with the lot number written to avoid confusion, and in my spreadsheet in my standard format. The process of checking a catalogue with 330 coins, verifying two provenances and entering three brand new ones, took one and a half hours. One multiplies this by dozens, hundreds, of catalogues and the hour total gets scary. Though ... it becomes soon apparent whether a given catalogue has my type of coins rather than typically much worse or much better ones, either of which can save a lot of time. NAC H was right on the button. I show below the three added coins. We may as well look at some coins after this tale of red tape.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #131 on: February 12, 2016, 12:00:49 pm »
Pay yourself 25 credits for that hit!  It is grueling work, but very gratifying when those hits come in!

Offline Jordan Montgomery

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #132 on: February 14, 2016, 01:07:03 pm »
Andrew mentioned CNG's archives on ISSUU and I'd like to add a note about how I use these archives. These catalogs have been professionally processed using OCR so their text can be searched reasonably easily either in a single catalog(using the magnifying glass button) or en masse using Google site search. As an example, I recently purchased the following coin from an international auction site(the picture is theirs because I have yet to receive it). After I won it I first searched 'site:issuu.com/cngcoins "382/1b"' where 382/1b is the Crawford number for this type. That didn't turn up anything so I changed my search to "382/1a". Still nothing, but OCR isn't perfect, sometimes numbers get transformed or spaces get inserted where they shouldn't, so I tried the coin's reverse die number: "CCV". That returned only two results, one being a link to CNA XIV and the next a direct link to CNA XIV page 71 where, lo and behold, it's my denarius at the top-right corner (link for those interested) . A bit more experimentation found that I could also have searched for the Sydenham number to find this coin.

Now, this isn't quite as easy as the upload-and-forget service that was recently discussed but it's so quick and easy that it's usually my third stop for provenance research(behind ACSearch and the CNG e-archives) and I always spend 5 or 10 minutes searching here before I consult my physical library. I do wish ISSUU had prices realized, as I note that when possible, but in its absence I simply note the estimate and move on.
Gallery of my collection with notes and discussion of Republican history and numismatics

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #133 on: February 14, 2016, 01:51:30 pm »
Thanks for that information, Jordan. I did not know those catalogue scans were searchable!  That will save loads of time and effort.

Offline suarez

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #134 on: February 14, 2016, 04:59:13 pm »
Man, I am depressed with envy after reading the last ten posts or so! I'd love to come over to your stashes but pretty sure you wouldn't want all that drooling on your catalogs :-)

Fortunately for me my desire is for the data rather than the physical books - and good thing too since I'd have no space for them even if I did. I have in digital form some 500 catalogs which I'm slowly splitting up into individual lots from the plates and categorizing to make searching easier. I'm still missing many of the 'big name' sales but little by little I'm getting a fairly good comprehensive library. This is my spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OBaC0uOINGzBYoH8fYl3UHm1CdoT3VnVwut22P0qSK8/edit#gid=862572875

If you're feeling particularly generous and can help me get any of the red ink out..... :-D

Ras

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #135 on: February 14, 2016, 05:37:25 pm »
Quote from: Carausius on February 14, 2016, 01:51:30 pm
Thanks for that information, Jordan. I did not know those catalogue scans were searchable!  That will save loads of time and effort.

Ditto, and I also didn't realise you could link to a specific page within the issuu documents. It potentially allows me to include a link to a coins prior appearance somewhere in my databases - without having to leaf through 150 pages, searching as I go along, to find some coin mentioned in a sale. Thanks Jordan.

Man, I am depressed with envy after reading the last ten posts or so! I'd love to come over to your stashes but pretty sure you wouldn't want all that drooling on your catalogs :-)

Fortunately for me my desire is for the data rather than the physical books - and good thing too since I'd have no space for them even if I did. I have in digital form some 500 catalogs which I'm slowly splitting up into individual lots from the plates and categorizing to make searching easier. I'm still missing many of the 'big name' sales but little by little I'm getting a fairly good comprehensive library. This is my spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OBaC0uOINGzBYoH8fYl3UHm1CdoT3VnVwut22P0qSK8/edit#gid=862572875

If you're feeling particularly generous and can help me get any of the red ink out..... :-D

Ras

Ras,
 and I think we'd be interested in where your project is going. There's clearly mileage in making searchable provenance databases.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #136 on: February 17, 2016, 07:54:17 am »
I happened to be perusing some of my old Naville/Ars Classica catalogues, and came across the following plate for lot 246 in Ars Classica VIII (1924) - Clarence S. Bement Collection.  It certainly looks like a match to my Memmius, acquired a couple of years ago.  Note in particular the edge ding at 12h on obv, and the reverse centering and poorly struck "S". The interior of the reverse shield and the obverse neck truncation look slightly different - shall I blame those on plate casting flaws or are these just near twins?



Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #137 on: February 17, 2016, 08:39:24 am »
Michael

Yours are the same coin for certain. The differences are inconsequential, the edge nick at 12pm obverse isn't the result of the die but of coin damage, and that's not a coincidence.

I just had a pair I had to take a different view of - Knobloch 620 versus my Cr. 480/5b, pics below. Different coins, same die pair. Aside from the obviously similar offstrike what threw me at first was the raised mark under Victory - but that's explicable as a die flaw common to both as is the raised line above the star and that through the letter C - and slightly coincidental that both coins have an edge crack above the letter P, but the crack differs in shape and directions; other edge cracks differ, border intersections differ, mine is overall more complete in several aspects but marginally more worn, the nick at 1pm obv on mine isn't on Knobloch. I was initially concerned about mine being a copy but I realised that mine has plenty of details entirely missing from the Knobloch and the reverse applies too. Superficial differences due to a similar offstrike and same dies, but once you look more closely the resemblences crumble and one realises they are totally different coins. Whereas with a real match, the differences fade and the resemblences become more important.

Offline carthago

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #138 on: February 17, 2016, 10:02:36 am »
Quote from: Carausius on February 17, 2016, 07:54:17 am
I happened to be perusing some of my old Naville/Ars Classica catalogues, and came across the following plate for lot 246 in Ars Classica VIII (1924) - Clarence S. Bement Collection.  It certainly looks like a match to my Memmius, acquired a couple of years ago.  Note in particular the edge ding at 12h on obv, and the reverse centering and poorly struck "S". The interior of the reverse shield and the obverse neck truncation look slightly different - shall I blame those on plate casting flaws or are these just near twins?

Definitely a match.  The overall coin looks the same proportionally, the 12h nick is a dead ringer, but also the minor flan flaws on the reverse at 1h and 8h appear barely visible on the cast photo.  It's your coin.  Congratulations!


Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #139 on: February 17, 2016, 11:00:22 am »
...once you look more closely the resemblences crumble and one realises they are totally different coins. Whereas with a real match, the differences fade and the resemblences become more important.

Thanks for this sage advice, Andrew, which seems particularly appropriate to photos of casts, rubbings, etchings, and other facsimiles that we typically encounter in our old catalogues and books.  These facsimile methods were not always precise.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #140 on: February 17, 2016, 11:09:27 am »
Quote from: carthago on February 17, 2016, 10:02:36 am
Definitely a match.  The overall coin looks the same proportionally, the 12h nick is a dead ringer, but also the minor flan flaws on the reverse at 1h and 8h appear barely visible on the cast photo.  It's your coin.  Congratulations!

Thanks, Carthago. I'm surprised I never found it before, as I've had the coin nearly 2 years and I've had the Bement catalogue for at least a year. 

Offline carthago

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #141 on: February 17, 2016, 03:04:37 pm »
Quote from: Carausius on February 17, 2016, 11:09:27 am
Quote from: carthago on February 17, 2016, 10:02:36 am
Definitely a match.  The overall coin looks the same proportionally, the 12h nick is a dead ringer, but also the minor flan flaws on the reverse at 1h and 8h appear barely visible on the cast photo.  It's your coin.  Congratulations!

Thanks, Carthago. I'm surprised I never found it before, as I've had the coin nearly 2 years and I've had the Bement catalogue for at least a year. 

I LOVE it when that happens!  That slight glimmer of hope keeps us going! 

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #142 on: February 22, 2016, 06:02:45 am »
Milestone report:

I've completed my catalogue review of
- all 101 CNG printed auctions
- all 107 NAC auctions incl. letter sales
- 14 13 Vecchi auctions - I'm missing 4,5,13,16 of the original 17

From these three sources I found 500 494 provenances (out of a collection of 1190, so I'm slightly over 40% "provenanced" by now). Essentially all my really old provenances also passed through one of these three houses (principally NAC and CNG) because that's where my high end coins have tended to come from.

Surveying the rest - 690 696 coins - probably one quarter have a very recent printed auction provenance I can lock immediately by just looking it up and writing it down. Most are coins I bought here and there from dealers such as Gorny, Kuenker, Hirsch, Vico, Aureo etc, that I just haven't got round to writing up properly; generally German and there is fair hope that I can find the same coins in older German sales. A further quarter were private purchases from collections that likely originated in Italy at some point though there's nothing I can cite, though I can cite my own photo-upload date as evidence of "out of Italy date". But a few may be findable in old Italian FPLs such as de Falco or Baranowsky. For another quarter I can cite my own retail purchase from a reputable dealer (without evidence) and trust you will believe me. And the final slice can never be provenanced because they represent recently found coins whose first ever market appearance was when they were sold to me by seller that cannot be cited as a provenance e.g. eBay or a vest-pocket dealer.

I'm using Warren Esty's listings http://esty.ancients.info/catalogs/ to guide my searches from about 1990 to date. Spring works well until 1975 or so, especially in conjunction with my own detailed review http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/RRAuctions.html of pre-1970 sales. There's an inventory gap between 1975 and 1990 - no readily accessible source that says what is in those catalogues. Likewise for FPLs of all dates. Ted Buttrey's Fitzwilliam list is the most comprehensive http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins/library/salescatalogue/ but doesn't list contents. It is however invaluable for putting an actual date to a numbered sale e.g. that Leu 86 was on 5th May 2003. The html lists are tedious to scroll through, so use the "Find on this page" browser function.

Overall I'm reasonably confident of getting to 60% documented provenances (citation to a printed catalogue or FPL) over the long run, and to able to cite provenances for 75% of my collection - including those cases where I write "Purchased from Baldwin's, 1996" on my own recognizance. However the CNG/NAC/Vecchi stream represents the low hanging fruit, so I expect progress to become very slow from now (once I've tackled the remaining recent provenances). I haven't yet done a comprehensive acsearch check or CNG e-auction check; hopefully they yield a few dozen more than I haven't already found.

The average provenance date of the 500 coins locked in so far is 1994 - i.e. based on the oldest reliable citation for each coin. For the next 60%, the average provenance date is going to be much more recent as I expect the great majority won't result in a date much earlier than my own purchase, in 2012 or whenever. Of course the 500 already documented will, over time, be pushed back a bit further by new finds. So there's still progress to be made laboriously going through every single of the remaining major dealers. Very often new provenance finds turn out to be intermediate e.g. I bought a coin in 2009, found a 1977 provenance, and later find a 1996.

Some coin types are persistently more difficult to recognise than others, especially types that generally come uniformly struck. Also tiny coins (sestertii). Some are generally easier e.g. bronzes with typical flan flaws.

In general, regardless of condition, my own collection coins are on average appreciably better struck, better style, and on larger flans than the market-average for a given condition for a given type. I guess that's my own built up expertise in choosing coming into play. But in those few cases when I persistently recognise that not to be the case for a given type that signals to me that I need to divest my current coin - I'm ok in having worn coins, so long as my worn coin is better than the flock. But I'm not ok having even well preserved coins if my GVF-EF example is persistently the ugliest one on the market. It's gotta go.

You get to know your own coins pretty well through provenancing work.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #143 on: February 22, 2016, 01:23:27 pm »
Andrew,

Kudos on completing that gargantuan task! Having read the description of your catalogue review method several posts above, I imagine this must have taken weeks of persistent work. The fantastic results speak for themselves.

Were most of these finds coins that you had purchased at the respective auction, but neglected to write down the acquisition information; or were they surprise finds?

I've recently bought many of the Vecchi catalogues, but not the few you're missing. I have not thoroughly reviewed them yet, but I should.

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #144 on: February 22, 2016, 01:49:26 pm »
Quote from: Carausius on February 22, 2016, 01:23:27 pm
Andrew,

Kudos on completing that gargantuan task! Having read the description of your catalogue review method several posts above, I imagine this must have taken weeks of persistent work. The fantastic results speak for themselves.

Were most of these finds coins that you had purchased at the respective auction, but neglected to write down the acquisition information; or were they surprise finds?.

Only one third bought by me at the auctions that represent the coins' oldest provenance.

Of the rest, I probably had hints where to find the bodies in most cases - either a cited provenance or a ticket. But a substantial number - certainly over 100 of the 500 - were discoveries unknown to me.

These sources represent breadth (42% my coins went through just 3 catalogue sources!!!). Depth, in terms of how old, needs to come from older sources. An ideal sale will have both breadth (many coins provenanced) and depth (a scattering of famous and / or very old sales). Given some of my sample provenances I cited a few posts back, my collection should be well provenances in time - depth and breadth.

Ultimately there's a creaming curve as regards breadth - each 10% extra becomes more difficult. But as regards depth (age of provenance), great strides can yet be made. All those old look coins that have a Triton and NAC provenance can also be provenances to a 1930s FPL.

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #145 on: February 22, 2016, 02:41:58 pm »
I wanted to show two of the biggest surprises:

- a tiny post-reform semuncia with corn-ear weighing just 2 grams, bought off eBay in 2007 for a few dollars, is NAC Autumn Sale 95 (26 Oct.1995) lot 455

- an even tinier silver sestertius of Caius Considius Paetus, just 0.8 grams, bought from a small retail dealer in 2006, is Italo Vecchi Sale 17 (15 Dec.1999) lot 779

12mm coins each. It's very difficult to match these tinies to a printed catalogue photo, but also wholly unexpected to find such coins bought on some dirt road some considerable way off the main highway of numismatics with venerable provenances. These sort of finds really give me hope. Might I find my nicest Pompey Minatia denarius (another fleabay item) in a Ratto sale some day?

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #146 on: February 27, 2016, 02:46:44 pm »
February ended well for me, with lots of additions to my catalogue library.

1.   Dorotheum, Apostolo Zeno Collection Parts II and III. Both the Roman parts of this large collection dating back to the 18th century.
2.   P & P Santamaria, Signorelli II and III (1952-3). The Republic and Imperial parts of these scarce catalogues. I have been hunting these catalogues for over a year, and was happy to acquire both in the last month.
3.   Emile Bourgey, Edouard Schott Collection (1972). One of the more difficult-to-find modern sale catalogues on Spring’s top Republican list.
4.   Ratto FPLs: I’ve picked up Rodolfo Ratto fixed-price lists number IX (Republic – 1933) and number XIV (Greek).  These are in addition to five already in my collection, which includes number I (Hadrian and his Family – 1931), number II (Palestine - 1932), number VIII (Republic – 1933), number XI (Greek Italy and Sicily -1934), and number XXI (Greek and Roman – 1939).  Ratto issued a series of 23 fixed price lists from 1931-1939, of which 9 contain ancient coins.  All are illustrated with high quality plates, making them useful for provenance research.  I now have 7 of those 9 lists.

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #147 on: March 06, 2016, 05:21:00 am »
Banti-Simonetti (i.e. the 1974 Roman Imperatorial volumes of Banti) yielded the following new provenances today: see pics below, in order:

1. Scarpus RRC 546/4 = Hamburger 96 (25 Oct.1932) lot 619 Jameson coll. (60 RM) = Banti-Simonetti Avgvstvs 548/3 (this coin). I already found a 1922 provenance for this coin in a Platt sale, so no extension in time but a more illustrious collection pedigree.

2. Legion V RRC 544/18 = K. Kress 109 (24 Oct.1958) lot 749 (est.25 DM)= Banti-Simonetti Marcvs Antonivs 75 (this coin). It's tough to provenance legionaries.

3. Scarpus RRC 546/2 = Rodolpho Ratto (23  Jan.1924) lot 1353 Bonazzi coll. (CHF 30) = Banti-Simonetti Marcvs Antonivs 27/1 (this coin). From a famous collection.

4. Cassius Tripod RRC 500/1 = Mario Ratto 1969 FPL 2 (Apr.-Jun.1969) lot 121 (L.It. 260,000) = Banti-Simonetti Cassivs 27/1 (this coin). Old provenance Cassius Tripod's are among the rarest types in the Republican series.

5. Banti-Simonetti Avgvstvs 533/1 (this coin) private coll. (= Banti coll.). Bought at NYINC 2014, this pushes the provenance back to 1974.

The first five volumes are full of proper Roman Republican coin types. There's a few in volume 6, and nothing in volume 7 (provincials) or volume 8 (later family issues). I'd already scored a couple before, so these 5 make 7 in all. Not a vast haul given the scope of Banti-Simonetti but each important in its way. More surprising perhaps was that so many good old provenances I already knew of e.g. Haeberlin didn't feature in Banti-Simonetti, though they would almost certainly have featured in the later Banti Republican. I guess the resource base was different with a focus on mainly Roman Imperial coin sales.

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #148 on: March 06, 2016, 09:36:10 am »
I just went through Alberto Santini, Saggio di Catalogo Generale delle Monete Consulari Anonime con Simboli, 1939-1940 (actually it's dated year XVIII 1939/1940). As its title suggests, it's a catalogue of Roman Republican coins showing symbols (star, rudder, knife, staff and wing etc.). Every known type (gold, silver and bronze) is illustrated, sometimes from multiple examples, with either reasonably good quality line drawings or fairly poor photos. Many more examples are listed than pictured with sources about 80% museums (not useful to us) and 20% private collections or auctions (useful), and weights are given for every cited coin (very useful and unusual at the time). The private collection examples are the author's own coins (line drawings) and 1920s-1930s major auctions. However of the coins actually pictured the great majority are museum examples, with d'Ailly (Paris Bibliotheque Nationale collection) as the main source. So there's a fairly small chance of finding a private collection provenance. If it's a book you own because the second Punic war era, and bronzes, interest you, then it's probably worth the couple of hours to check it out, but unless you specialise in the 2nd Punic or in bronzes it's probably not worth laying out many denarii to acquire it. I didn't find any provenances for my coins even though those are the areas I focus on! It is still a well made book, with over 100 fold out plates using photographic quality glossy paper. Evidently there wasn't any shortage of, or other priorities for, high quality photographic printing material at the time.

Offline Carausius

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Re: Old Auction Catalogue Madness!
« Reply #149 on: March 06, 2016, 10:51:59 am »
Nice finds in Banti, Andrew. I must admit that I have none of the "green" set of Banti, but it looks like I should consider buying volumes 1-6.   Regarding Hamburger 96, I was aware that some of that sale included ex Jameson coins, but I assumed they were limited to the Greek section. Do you think the Republican coins of that sale are all Jameson?  I'm about to meet my binder (waiting in her parking lot as I type this)  to have Hamburger's Niklovitz, 95 and 96 sales bound in two volumes.

 

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