I finished my
Banti trawl and found one more previously-unknown
provenance: 204/5
Saufeia quadrans,
Triton 1 (2
Dec.1997) lot 1056 Goodman coll. ex
Peus 322 (1 Nov.1988) lot 88 =
Banti Savfeia 5/1 (this coin) A.B. coll. (Alberto
Banti coll. before 1982). The evidence seems to show that the very interesting
Peus 322 sale which contains many coins with
symbols was probably the sale of Banti's own
collection.
So in all six
additions to the many existing
Banti provenances from a nine volume trawl. I
had hoped for more, but I'd forecast that new finds would become much scarcer once I'd completed my trawl of the relatively well
provenance CNG and NAC catalogues. As a sidebar diversion I completed my S.C.
Collection provenances: 13 coins, 9 with old provenances averaging 1963 composed of two
Haeberlin collection coins and 7 others from the early 1970s. Completion status after the Bantis and SC: 538 provenanced coins out of 1195 or 45%, with an
average provenance date of 1993 for those 538 (and evidently much more recent for the remaining 55%). I realise these updates are somewhat of a monologue, but just as with Meepzorp's collection-photography and website updates, I think it instructive to less experienced collectors to see what working your
collection involves. All the provenancing I've done so far
still represents only 50% of the shelf-volume of my catalogues - three shelves out of six - but laws of diminishing returns makes it likely there are less than a few dozen undiscovered finds in the remaining shelves. Those three shelves,
acsearch,
CNG e-auctions (printed already done) and a careful look at every physical piece of evidence I have - i.e. tickets - is what remains of
work that's doable in-house. After that will follow the archives at the NAC office, and then finally the
Fitzwilliam. I'll keep note of what's already been checked as I go along.
Once the provenancing
work is
complete, my next main task will be ticket arrangement, for which purpose I purchased 100 12-slot plastic pages in which to insert documentation of my
collection in proper order. I'm unfortunately at ground zero as far as this is concerned; whilst I've apparently orderly boxes that I showed here before for my RBW and NAC tickets, the general situation for lesser sources is much more disturbing. There is a picture below that reflects the aftermath of my searching yesterday evening for S.C.
collection tickets and their remnants. Viewer discretion advised. Do not look if you have a tidy mind. The
good side of course is that this reflects much coin fun
still to do.