Collection of Yerets’ Kariatin at Nomos
It is now time to somewhat belatedly announce obolos 12, our current webauction! With 1028 lots it is filled with all sorts of really interesting coins, which are bound to excite a wide audience! Needless to say, the starting prices are low: all the coins are truly for sale and bargains are to be had in all areas. Here is an introduction to the sale…
The sale starts with an important group of coins (lots 1-132) struck by the ancient kings of Armenia. This collection belongs to an erudite resident of Switzerland, Yerets’ Kariatin, whose pride in his ancestry led him to amass a true scholar’s collection of Armenian coins. Now retired to a life of devout contemplation, he has decided to part with his treasures: and treasures many of them certainly are! The collection begins with the coins of the kings of Sophene – Sophene’s Choice we might call them – and includes an almost impossibly rare dichalkon of the mysterious Morphilig, struck c. 150 BC (lot 20, starting price: 500 CHF).
From Armenia comes a tetrachalkon of Tigranes VI with a wonderful portrait (lot 103, starting price: 100 CHF); …
another fascinating portrait is on extremely rare tetrachalkon of Mithradates of Armenia Minor (lot 130, starting price: 500 CHF).
Lots 133-167 range from the Celtic world through Sicily, 168-225 are Thracian and Macedonian, 226-294 Thessaly through the Peloponnesos, 295-450 are coins from Asia: up through Armenia Minor; 451-496, Seleucids through Egypt. Then, beginning with 497, is an extensive series of Roman provincial issues running from Viminacium in Moesia through a billon tetradrachm of Nero from Alexandria (620). Roman Republican coins range from 621 through 646 (and include some very rare gold issues); Imperial coins start with a bronze of Augustus (647) and continue, in gold, silver and bronze, through some solidi of Leo I (866), when what we call the Byzantine Empire starts (867). The Byzantine section ends with a Nicaean anonymous issue (938) and some seals (939-945). The sale ends with medieval and modern coins, as well as some large multiple lots (946-1028).
You can find the auction catalog on the Nomos website, Sixbid, Numisbids, and Biddr.