AUCTION 28
Three collections, ancient Roman, British sixpences and Spence trade tokens, anchor our 28th auction closing 17h December. The Roman collection was formed over many years by a particularly well-informed and thoughtful collector whose career was teaching high school Latin. His collection represents many of the highlights of Roman history as they were reflected in Roman coinage. The Republican section includes examples of the aes grave series and early struck bronze, the historic silver quadrigatus with the janiform head, a post-reform bronze and then a baker's dozen important Republican denarii.
His Imperatorial representation includes six coins of Julius Caesar, coins of Mark Antony and his women–Octavia, Fulvia, and Cleopatra. Sextus Pompey and Lepidus are also represented. The lengthy and appealing coinage of Octavian/Augustus includes over two dozen silver and bronze coins ranging from Divus Julius Caesar issues through his reign to several colonial issues.
This thoughtful approach to his Roman collection is borne out in succeeding sections as well and his inclusion of many coins from the Greek Imperial series rounds out his effort to show the broad range of Roman numismatic history.
Most of his purchases were made from about ten different North American dealers and their original tags will be included with the lots. (In addition to the fascination of cataloging the collection, his purchase records provided an interesting opportunity to compare different pricing and grading practices, a subject that could be an interesting article all in itself.)
These days most sale catalogs featuring fully formed collections can afford to offer only collections of very high value. This sale is somewhat of an exception. Although there are some superb high value coins, many of the coins in this sale are estimated in the $100 to $500 range. The merit of the collection and the attractiveness of the coins made the cataloging effort worthwhile. The recent downturn in the market is also part of the story and estimates have been kept accordingly low. A well formed collection has an appeal all its own and the success of a London auction firm in October in selling a comprehensive collection of lesser value Scottish coins suggests that serious collecting is still alive.
The British section of the sale features a collection of sixpences of England, Scotland and Ireland formed over the past twenty years. The collection emphasizes quality and includes several important piece from the LaRiviere sale. William III is well represented with all the mints accounted for as well as the rare second bust.
Several important coins of Charles I and the Civil War including the Murdoch pound that was the plate coin in the older edition of the Standard Catalog help fill out a hammered section that begins with an extremely rare Viking copy as well as the rare first small cross penny of Aethelred II. The Scottish section includes two choice hammered gold pieces as well as some important silver. The Irish section offers copper coinage that has an old pedigree and ranks among the finest examples known.
The token section is made up a run of Spence halfpennies and farthings and a run of rare Scottish farthing tokens. They are all part of an important collection formed early in the 20th century and now appearing on the market piecemeal.
This section will also include, as one lot, over a hundred Irish countermarked tokens including 80 from the definitive collection formed by Emil Szauer, the prominent Dublin dealer who published the countermarked token series over several editions of Irish Numismatics. The lot also includes additional countermarked tokens bringing the total to 120.
A few rare and important numismatic references round out what has become the biggest sale to be published by the Davissons. Their sales have never had a buyer’s fee and this sale is no exception. They accept payment for lots in British sterling as well as US dollars. (Credit cards and paypal are also payment options.)
The full color, fully illustrated and detailed catalogs are free on request or can be viewed by clicking on the .pdf files on the left of this page.
