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[Provenance Research] ANS Archive Numbers

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Curtisimo:
I recently acquired a coin that was once held by the American Numismatic Society. I have the ANS archive number: 1001.1.25440

Does anyone know if there is any provenance information that can be interpreted from the ANS #? I know that the coin must have entered the collection in or before 1955.  The coin came with a small slip of paper with the number “25440” printed on it. My best guess is that this might mean that the coin was the 440th coin added to the collection in 1925?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thank you,
Curtis

Altamura:
It seems to be this coin: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3752221

As indicated in the auction description this coin is from the Archer M. Huntington Collection. Huntington was a former president of the ANS who had his collection lent to the ANS but bequeathed to the Hispanic Society of America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Milton_Huntington

After the HSA got in financial problems they forced the ANS to give back the Huntington collection and sold it via Sothebys: https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n32a13.html
Many of these coins are meanwhile back in the ANS thanks to people buying and donating them, but not all.

Somewhere in the web there is an article describing all this in detail, but I don't find it anymore >:(.

Regards

Altamura

Altamura:

--- Quote from: Altamura on June 05, 2022, 04:03:09 pm ---... Somewhere in the web there is an article describing all this in detail, but I don't find it anymore >:(. ...
--- End quote ---
I found it :): https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=stu_proj

Regards

Altamura

Curtisimo:
Thanks Altamura.  That is indeed my newly acquired example.

I had been researching Archer Huntington and his association with the ANS which is how I knew that the coin must have entered the ANS collection prior to his death in 1955.

I was not aware of the dynamics between the Hispanic Society of America and the ANS regarding the collection.  Thank you for the links and additional information.  Based on the links you provided I am now inclined to believe that the "25440" on the tag is meant to signify that this coin was numbered 25440 of the 37,895 coins that were loaned to the ANS by the HSA as part of the "1947 Loan."

I was curious about how much info could be gained from the accession numbering system that the ANS uses or if it is consistent over time.  I have some examples from the Art Institute of Chicago and the accession numbers make very transparent the year the coin entered the collection.

Altamura:
In the collection of the ANS you find coins which have remarks containing numbers of the same structure as your 1001.1.25440:
http://numismatics.org/collection/2015.12.14
http://numismatics.org/collection/2015.12.17

It looks as if these numbers have been the inventory numbers of the Hispanic Society of America.

You could just write to the ANS and ask them, they should know that :): https://numismatics.org/

Regards

Altamura

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