I just completed my
provenance searches of the
CNG electronic resources (web-shop, online
auctions and printed
auctions). I've also via issuu.com searched all the early printed catalogues from
CNA I, early Tritons, and the more recent
CNR. For completeness sake I'd note that I
still miss e-auctions prior to sale 50, presumably vanished into the ether, as well as the unillustrated web coins in the two or three printed sales whilst
CNG was transitioning from fully printed to printed + esales. Whilst fresh in my mind, here is what I learnt
- the webshop can easily be searched using
denominations. One finds that regardless of the
search, results are presented divided into Greek,
Provincial,
Republican and Imperial, so you can just go to the section relevant to you. And within the presentation, results are ordered in an approximately normal manner as one would expect in a single sale listing, with a few errors. I haven't discovered how this is done as it's not evidently based on any single text attribute such as date, but I presume the coins are all categorised in some manner and that categorisation leads to an automatic normal sequence, the errors being where despite a correct actual description the coin was placed in the wrong box, e.g. some L.Piso Frugi and C.Piso Frugis are misplaced. I guess we really don't need to know but it is very convenient, and even works for Greek
denominations since "
didrachm" has a
Roman Republican results sub-section.
- the eauctions can be searched by sequentially searching from 50 to 375, and scrolling through until you find the relevant section e.g.
Roman Republican in each case. Results are backward ordered, but as soon as you get used to it, it's
fine. For sales 50-99 you'll also
pick up via the same
search the relevant printed sales with the same number
- printed sales are all on issuu.com, with as I mentioned an exception for the early CNRs.
- the eauctions reveal a great deal about how prices have changed in the last 15 years. There was a jump in 2006-2007 (not coincident but just before the financial crash) and then another jump in 2011 - coincident in my
area with the RBW sales. From about 2012 odd specialised coins e.g. unusual overstrikes,
rare but worn varieties, saw a significant boost. I believe this is due to some specific collector on the market. The 2006-2007 jump inordinately affected better
quality coins and some common but collector-desired
types such as
Caesar elephant denarii, but all
types were affected to a degree. The 2011-2012 jump especially affected both better
quality and unusual variety
types, provided the latter were basically problem free.
- the eauctions are almost entirely composed of coins with at least one or more problems - could be surfaces, wear, offstrikes or bad dies. One almost never sees an all-round
good coin in an eauction. The content of earlier eauctions varied wildly - perhaps all Greek in one sale and mostly Imperial in the next - but in the last five years they've settled down into
standard sizes and proportions between all eras. However once in a while there is a special sale in one or other
area, usually by a named person, such as Karl Sifferman, RBW duplicates, Professor Fontana - and in such cases one sees quite large runs of untypically nice coins.
- the web
shop, in contrast, typically has problem free coins but of common
types. These are invariably printed
auction quality pieces but to list them as such would likely glut the market. So we have multiple anonymous 38/7 semunciae,
Caesar elephants,
Piso Frugi, Cassius tripods etc., listed one at a time. Makes sense. There are no dates on the web
shop items but maybe
CNG woud know.
- Whilst I picked up great numbers of
good provenances from the printed sales, I drew a
complete blank on the web
shop despite the
good quality coins, and almost a
complete blank on the esales. Of course I found the coins I'd purchased in those venues but nothing else. I put that down to these venues being invariably "full retail pricing" and therefore unattractive to dealers looking to
flip a coin to me later. Indeed if you want to get a sense of what normal retail pricing has been over the years,
CNG eauctions are a
good place to consult; results are very consistent for the same
types at a given period.
I leave you with a picture of the one surprise
provenance I did
pick up:
Purchased by me in 2014
CNG e250 (23 Feb. 2011) lot 250
Bank Leu -
Spink - NAC Ceresio 3 sale (3 Oct.1992) lot 154
(can you imagine Leu,
Spink and NAC collaborating on a sale?)