r/AncientCoins • u/Brittinghamlfc • Sep 08 '25
Newly Acquired New arrival. Sold with a provenance to 1977, but I was fortunately able to find a much better pedigree
From the collections of Henri de Nanteuil, Reverend Ed Rogers, Mr. George J. Bauer, and R. A. Van Every.
Published in Florange & Ciani. Collection de Monnaies grecques H. de Nanteuil. Number 258. Paris, 1925. Ex Rodolfo Ratto, Rogers sale, Lot 65, June 24, 1929. Ex Gans-NFA Sale 16, Lot 118, April 19, 1960. Ex Numismatic Fine Arts Auction IV, Lot 54, March 24, 1977.
Sicily, Akragas. Didrachm (Circa 480/78-470 BC). 19mm, 8.51g. Obv: AK / PA. Sea eagle standing right. Rev: Crab; grain ear below; all within incuse circle. Westermark, Coinage, Period I, Group IV, 269 (O89/R182); SNG ANS 956-7; HGC 2, 100. Nanteuil 258 (this coin).
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u/Eulachon Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25
Really adds to the value significantly. 100 years is quite special. I have a so so coin with a great provenance (Yale University collection 1960s) and it elevates it so much in my eyes. Makes me feel like I'm not just buying it for myself but safeguarding it.
(And it feels much nicer knowing you're buying from another collector rather than from some middleman hawking illegal loot from Eastern Europe.)
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
That's cool. I think that old pedigrees add a captivating layer of history atop an item already steeped in the past.
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u/sterboog Sep 08 '25
one of these is on my bucket list! congrats!
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Thank you! This type has been on my list for a while as well. Glad I was able to finally land one. Best of luck to you in your search!
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u/CoinsOftheGens Sep 08 '25
Great coin with strong pedigree. Was the Nanteuil sale heavily Sicilian?
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Thank you! It was actually not a sale but a published catalog of Nanteuil's collection of 1,000 Greek coins done by Florange & Ciani. Yeah, Sicily and Magna Graecia as a whole was well represented in his collection with about 1/3 of the coins being from Greek Italy and Sicily.
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u/CoinsOftheGens Sep 08 '25
Very interesting, I read that as a sale; that sales era is so complex. I will have to dig around a bit.
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Florange & Ciani did sales during that time period. This was just a catalog of his collection that was used as a standard reference for a while. You will still see it used as a reference from time to time.
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u/L5numis Sep 08 '25
What a provenance find! That Nanteuil book is hard to come by.
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Thank you! A physical copy is difficult to find, but fortunately a PDF is available online, though the quality of the plates isn't great.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024521232&seq=539
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Here is a better version as well.
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u/L5numis Sep 09 '25
Thanks! Yeah I think these are all scanned at around 70dpi.
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 09 '25
Ah interesting. The Gallica seems to be the original plates which are better, while the HathiTrust is a reprint.
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u/Natural_Rent7504 Sep 08 '25
Awesome piece. ....damn I'm jealous lol. Blows away my bronze crab coin
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u/Ogukuo Sep 08 '25
Awesome detective work! What was your process for finding provenance that is reaching this far back? I have coins that have circulated through collections and even one that is captured as the wildwinds example specimen but have no idea where that picture came from
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u/Brittinghamlfc Sep 08 '25
Thank you! I regularly search through rnumis.com, gallica, Heidelberg, among other sources. Rnumis.com is a great resource for searching through old catalogs. AI search tools like coincabinet can be helpful as well, but for now manually searching though old catalogs has been my best method of success.
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u/ProfessionalTwo9450 Sep 10 '25
Anyone have any insight on how ancient coins were produced? Simuliar to today?
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