When I was a schoolboy and a collector of American coins, my desire to at least hold in my own hand certain very
rare American coins, was unexpectedly fulfilled when my father brought me along on a business trip to Washington DC and left me to go through the
Smithsonian by myself while he
had a meeting.
I went to the coin room where two employees were unpacking coins and putting them back in the display cases after their return from an exhibition elsewhere.
"I'll bet you don't have an 1822 five-dollar gold piece", I said. "Yes we do", they replied, and placed the coin in my hand!
"Surely you can't have the unique 1849 twenty-dollar gold piece?", I continued. "Indeed we do", they answered, and handed me that coin too to hold!
As a graduate student studying
Roman history and coins, I read of the astonishing unique
aureus of
Trajan and
Hadrian as
Caesar, which was discovered c. 1750, entered the
French cabinet, but was then stolen and melted down with the rest of their ancient
gold coins and medallions in the deplorable theft of 1831.
Trajan is reported to have adopted
Hadrian only three days before he died, and there were rumors that he
had done no such thing but that
his death
had just been concealed for three days so the story could be put out and a smooth succession assured.
Here was a coin proving that indeed the news of Hadrian's adoption and Caesarship
had reached
Rome before the news of Trajan's death and Hadrian's proclamation as emperor! Surviving
Mionnet sulphur casts of the coin proved that its authenticity was beyond question.
"What a fantastic coin!", I thought.
Thirty years later I was working for
Harlan Berk and he asked me to look over images of about thirty
Roman aurei that were being offered to us from
France. And there was a second
aureus of
Trajan and
Hadrian Caesar, from the same dies as the lost
Paris piece but differently centered so clearly a different specimen, and which
had been priced far too low because of confusion with the much less
rare aurei of
Hadrian and Divus
Trajan!
We bought the piece and put it in our
catalogue, so I at least got to discover, hold in my hand, and write up one of my ancient "dream" coins!
If I
had to choose one more, it would be the unique bronze
medallion of Philip I-II and
Otacilia Severa in
Berlin, with
rev. SAECVLARES AVGG depicting a
chariot race in the
Circus Maximus during the games commemorting Rome's thousandth birthday.
This
coin shows that for the occasion, the spina in the
Circus, the long narrow central divide around which the races proceeded,
had been redecorated. The obelisk at its middle
had been transformed into a giant
palm tree, and the turning posts and other monuments
had been turned into models of four buildings, including the
Flavian amphitheater or Colosseum!
In front of the spina, the winning charioteer has just crossed the finish-line, and raises
his r.
arm in acclamation. The
chariot behind him has crashed, two horses lie prostrate on the ground, a third is running back in the wrong direction, and the charioteer is flying
head over heels into the
arena. Behind him is the third
quadriga, and a fourth is just rounding the final turning post.
This unique piece is in EF condition, is
well centered on an extra-large
flan, and has a dark green
patina.
Do you suppose that if I ever get to hold this dream coin too in my hot little hand, I'll finally be allowed to add it to my own
collection?