Congress Poised to apply banking regulations to Antiquities Market, NYT 01/01/2021

 "Far too little attention has hitherto been bestowed upon the provenance of ancient coins. The intervention of the coin dealer between the finder and the purchaser is often quite sufficient to obscure or obliterate entirely all evidence of provenance. Coin collectors have also been too often oblivious of the scientific importance of placing on record the sources of their acquisitions."

Numismatic Chronicle 1906, page 3

Congress Poised to Apply Banking Regulations to Antiquities Market - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

ARABIA; Himyarite Kingdom; Thāran Ya’ub Yuhan’im ثارن يعب يهنعم c. CE 200-225

AR Silver unit, 1.62 g, 17 mm. Raydan mint

Huth 449-450 var.

O: head r with long curls, dotted border and monogram on left behind head

R: head r also with long curls, monogram to right and South Arabian inscription above from right to left

THARN Y’UB ثارن يعب (in modern Arabic) 

and below RYDN ريدن (in modern Arabic)

 

Ex: CNG 447 (07/03/2019) portion of lot 738 

SWEDISH OCCUPATION OF THE BALTIC (Livonia) FROM 1628 (a small lot)

 Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 16 mm, 0.60 g, Riga mint, 1635

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS LIVONENSIS 35

Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 16 mm, 0.58 g, Riga mint, 1647

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 47

Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 15 mm, 0.51 g, Riga mint, 1651

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 51

Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 15 mm, 0.509 g, Riga mint, 1652

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 52

Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 16 mm, 0.60 g, Riga mint, 1653

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 53

King Carl X Gustav (1654-1660) Billon Szelag (Solidus) 15 mm 0.43 g, Riga mint 1654

O: Crowned CG all within inner circle,

CAROLVS GVSTAV D G R S

R; Arms in cartouche, SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 54

SWEDISH OCCUPATION OF THE BALTIC (Livonia) FROM 1628

 

King Carl X Gustav (1654-1660) Billon Szelag (Solidus) 15 mm 0.51 g, Riga mint 1656

O: Crowned CG all within inner circle, 

CAROLVS GVSTAV D G R S

R; Arms in cartouche, SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 56

SWEDISH OCCUPATION OF THE BALTIC (Livonia) FROM 1628

King Gustav II Adolf (1611-1632) Billon Szelag (Solidus) 16 mm 0.79 g, Riga mint, 1632

O: Crowned GA all within inner circle GVST ADOL D G REX S

R: Arms in cartouche, SOLIDVS RIGENSIS 32

SWEDISH OCCUPATION OF THE BALTIC (Livonia) FROM 1628

 

Queen Christina (1632-1654)  Billon Szelag (Solidus) 15 mm, 0.69 g, Riga mint, 1645

O: Crowned C enclosing Vasa arms, all within inner circle. CHRISTINA D G D R S

R: Arms in cartouche. SOLIDVS CIVI RIG 45

Swedish queen Drottning Kristina portrait by Sébastien Bourdon stor

ROMAN/ Maximianus, Post-Abdication Coinage CE 305-306, Ex: Dattari

 

AE Half Follis, 20 mm, 3.6 g, Alexandria mint CE 306

RIC VI 91b

RCV 13419

O: Maximian wearing consular robes holding branch and mappa r, DN MAXIMIANO FELICISS

R: PROVIDENTIA DEORVM Providentia stg r extending a hand to Quies stg l. holding branch and leaning on scepter, in center of field Δ  

In ex ALE mint mark

 

Ex: Victor Clark (TN)

Ex: CNG 471 portion of lot 650 (1 July 2020)

Ex: Giovanni Dattari (1853-1923) Collection of Late Roman Bronzes

ROMAN/ Crispus, Caesar under Constantine I, late CE 316-Aug/Sept 326, Ex: Dattari

 

Bi. Centenionalis, 18 x 19 mm, 3.2 g, Ticinum (modern Ticino, Italy) mint CE 322-325

RIC VII 170

RCV 16785

LRBC I, 482

O: laur cuir bust r, CRISPVS-NOB CAES, flan crack at 5 0’clock

R: DOMINOR NOSTROR CAESS around wreath. Inside wreath VOT/./X/crescent in ex PT mintmark, flan crack at 2 o’clock

Ex: Victor Clark (TN)

Ex: CNG 470 portion of lot 641 (17/06/2020)

Ex: Giovanni Dattari (1853-1923) Collection of Late Roman Bronzes

 

Unpublished Tarsian drachm of Seleukos IV BCE 187-175

AR Drachm, 4.0 g, 18 mm, 1h, Tarsos mint

SC 1310 variety but unpublished as a drachm with these controls (R3)

O: hd of Seleukos IV rt. Dotted border.

R: BAΣIΛEΩΣ on right ΣEΛEYKOY on left with ΣA control on far left and ΠΑ monogram on far right.

No bowcase in ex.

The controls are similar to the Tarsian Tetradrachms of Seleukos IV but none are recorded in SC or in available extant sources bearing the same controls in the drachm denominations. 

ROMAN REPUBLIC; Mysia, Pergamon, L. Sempronius Atratinus Quaestor c. BCE 42-39

AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm, 24 mm, 12.21 g, 6h.

SNG France 1766

 O: Cista mystica with serpent emerging, all within an ivy wreath.

 
R: Two serpents entwined around a bow in a case, "ATPA" monogram above, "Q" to left, serpent entwined thyrsos to right.

 

From Wikipedia:

L. Sempronius Atratinus  (BCE 73- 7 CE) was a Roman politician who was elected suffect consul in 34 BC. He is mentioned in Pro Caelio, a famous speech in defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus by Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Probably born a member of the patrician branch of the ancient Sempronia family, Atratinus was possibly adopted by Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, but did not assume his adopted father’s nomen gentile.^[1] In 56 BC he launched a prosecution against Marcus Caelius Rufus who had previously unsuccessfully attempted to prosecute Atratinus’s adopted father on bribery charges. Caelius had fallen out with his lover, Clodia, and she accused him of attempted poisoning. Other charges included the murder of an ambassador. She asked Atratinus to prosecute Caelius, which he was only too happy to do.^[2] Caelius was successfully defended by Marcus Tullius Cicero, and in his published Pro Caelio, Cicero claimed that Atratinus was being manipulated by Clodia to get revenge on Caelius for an affair gone wrong.^[3]

 

In 40 BC, Atratinus was elected praetor suffectus, as all the previously elected praetors had retired from office after the Treaty of Brundisium between Octavianus, Mark Antony and Lepidus. Late in 40 BC, he and his colleague Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus convened the Senate to introduce Herod the Great, who received the title of King of Judea.^[4] This same year he was elected to the role of Augur, one of the priests of ancient Rome, a position he held until his death in 7 AD.^[5]

A supporter of Mark Antony, Atratinus was one of his legates, serving as propraetor in Greece in 39 BC.^[6] In 36 BC he was given command of a portion of a fleet which Antony had sent to help Octavianus deal with Sextus Pompey.^[7] In 34 BC he was elected suffect consul on January 1, as Antony resigned his position as consul within 24 hours. Atratinus himself held the consulate until July 1 of that year.^[8] At some point prior to the Battle of Actium, Atratinus abandoned Antony and switched his support to Octavianus.^[9] He was made proconsular governor of Africa around 23 BC, and was awarded a triumph for his actions there in 21 BC.^[10]

Atratinus's sister, Sempronia, was married to Lucius Gellius Publicola.^[11] Atratinus' poorly preserved burial mausoleum is located in Gaeta, Italy.

By Pufui PcPifpef - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72126843

Mausoleum of Atratinus in Gaeta, Italy . There was a stone found there that was then utilized in the wall of a local church inscribed L ATRATIN which is now identified as L. Atratinus whose mausoleum these are the ruins of.

 

Atratinus portrait coin from Sparta via acsearch.info 

 

 

ROMAN; Maximianus CE 285-310, Second Reign CE 306-308

AE Follis, 25 mm, 7.2 g, 12h,  Treveri (Trier) Mint, c. CE 307-308

RCV 13449

RIC Trier 768

O: IMP C VAL MAXIMIANVS PF AVG, laur cuir bust r.

R:  GENIO-POPROM, Genius stg l holding patera in r and cornucopia in l. in field on left S on right A in ex, PTR.

    ex Warren Esty 2020
 
Michael Grant in his book The Roman Emperors; A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome 31BC-AD476 writes a description of Maximianus on pp. 212-213 that quotes an earlier writer "...as Eutropius has suggested, he [Maximianus] was also thoroughly coarse, savage, brutal, impatient and impossible to get on with. His coin portraits, showing him enveloped in the head-dress of his divine patron Hercules, are at pains to emphasize this ferocious toughness of character. It was combined with a remorseless hankering to return to the power he had been induced to abdicate, supported by an infinite capacity for treacherous intrigue to secure that end--shown, for example, in his willingness to betray both his son Maxentius and his son-in-law Constantine."
 
One does not have to easily imagine that due to such ambitions, the initial triumph of the tetrarchic system of Diocletian came crashing down within a year of the founder's abdication leaving the empire in no better straights than it had been during the last half of the third century, until Constantine established himself and his family as paramount rulers on the ashes of Diocletian's attempt at bringing order to chaos.
 

ROMAN; Autonomous Civic pagan coinage struck under Maximinus II c. CE 311-312.

 

 16 mm., 1.48 g, 11h,  ANTIOCH Mint

RCV 14927

O: GENIO AN-TIOCHENI, Antioch seated facing, river god swimming below

R:  APOLLONI-SANCTO, Apollo holding patera and lyre,  Z (for the seventh officina) in the right field. SMA  

The depictions are supposed to be according to Vagi, from the city’s most famous statuary. The Tyche of Antioch by Eutychides of Sikyon of which there is a Roman copy in marble in the Vatican Museum and the Apollo of Daphne by Bryaxis of Athens.

Ex: Warren Esty 2020

Ex: Dan Clark, 1989 at $30

Ex: Stack's Knobloch 5/5/84 portion of lot 1388

Ex: Frederick S. Knobloch Collection  

ROMAN/ Julian II CE 361-363

O: DN FL CL IVLIANVS PF AVG, helmeted cuir., diad., bust left with shield and spear

  R: VO[T/X]/M[V]LT/XX within a wreath, mm in ex. 



AE 3; 21 mm, 2.73 g, 6 h, Constantinople mint c. 362-363

mm branches on either side CONSB

RIC 165 (Rare)

RCV 19175

SPAIN/ Fernando IV el Emplazado CE 1295-1312

O: F REX CASTELLE mintmark beneath castle "S" for Sevilla

R: ET LEGIONIS, lion adv l.

Bi. Pepion, 19 mm, 0.85 g, Sevilla mint

Cayon 1224

ex: PNC Collection

Cuba 21st Century Peso Convertible Series Coins

KM #575.2  2017, 5 centavos, Nickel-plated steel 18 mm 2.65g

 

KM# 576.2, 2013, 10 centavos 3.94 g

 

KM# 577.2, 2018, 25 centavos, 5.7 g

 

KM# 578.1, 2002, 50 centavos, 25 mm 7.5 g

 

 

My thanks to MBK for bringing these samples back from a recent trip to Cuba.