Naville Numismatics’ Live Auction 55

Naville Numismatics Live Auction 55 features a selection of 720 lots of Greek, Roman, Byzantine coins, all chosen with contribution from NAC’s experts. The sale will close on Sunday 9 February 2020, 16.00 UK time, at which time the live session will begin. Absentee bidders can bid electronically through Naville Numismatics website from the day the sale is published online up to the start of the live session.

The sale begins with a selection of coins, including bronzes and fractions, from Magna Graecia, Sicily and Greece, some of them from the E.E. Clain-Stefanelli collection sold in association with Stacks Bowers Galleries.

This section of the sale includes coins offers an attractive series of rare and beautiful coins from Populonia, Ariminum, Neapolis, Venusia, Tarentum, Uxentum, the Lucani, Metapon-tum, Croton, Rhegium, the Uresentini, Catana, Syracuse, Athens and Corinth, even beyond a selection of Hellenistic portraits of Seleucid, Parthic, Sasanian and Ptolemaic kings.

Highlights include a rare tetradrachm of Catana, work of the “Maestro della foglia”, a stater of Koson and an Achaemenid daric.

The Roman selection boasts an interesting series of Roman Republican bronzes and a striking array of denarii. This includes a beautiful quadrigatus, a rare spearhead (first) series denarius, a well struck quinarius of M. Cato and a beautiful denarius of I. Caesar with the elephant.

In this part, there is also an interesting selection of Republican portraits such as I. Caesar, Sextus Pompeius and Marcus Antonius.

The Imperial selection of the sale features an attractive series of Augustus, a beautiful sestertius of Drusus, a very rare denarius of Gaius, an aureus of Nero with the Salus on reverse, a rare denarius of Vitellius, a rare sestertius of Caracalla, a beautiful solidus of Constans, a scarce solidus of Valentinian I and a rare solidus of Arcadius, even beyond a selection of solidi, siliquae, denarii, tetradrachms, sestertii, dupondii, asses and folles, which includes Claudius, Nero, Galba, Vitellius, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Geta, Elagabalus, Gordian III, Philip I, Philip II, Trajan Decius, Diocletian, Maximianus I, Constantius I, Galeria, Constantine I and Valentinian I.

They are also remarkable such as an aureus of Claudius with Ceres on reverse, an aureus of Vespasian with Fortuna on reverse and a beautiful aureus of Lucius Verus.

The Roman Provincial part of the sale includes a selection from the Dattari Collection.

It is composed of Alexandrine coins from Octavian to Galerius with various types of obols, diobols, hemidrachms, and drachms featuring rare portrayals of ancient divinities. Highlights include coins of Augustus, Claudius, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Lucius Verus, remarkable specimens both for the state of preservation and rarity. Giovanni Dattari was born in Livorno on 19th April 1858 and moved to Egypt with his family after the death of his father in 1875. He is known to have been a keen and competent amateur-merchant of Egyptian antiquities and Greek and Roman coinage. His study in the family villa in Cairo was a common meeting place for archaeologists, Egyptologists and numismatists. Dattari started his coin collection in 1891 and by 1894 it was comprised of 395 pieces in base silver and 2207 in bronze.By 1903 the collection had grown to 6835 Alexandrian, 91 archaic Greek, 230 of Alexander the Great, 910 Ptolemaic, 19320 Roman coins and 630 lead and silver pieces and in the fol-lowing years this number of coins more than doubled.

In addition the auction presents an interesting and beautiful selection of Byzantine, Medieval, Modern World coins with important highlights and some interesting books, including the Geschichte des römischen Münzwesens of Theodor Mommsen and the Mazzini collection.

Naville Numismatics Ltd’s partnership with NAC guarantees highly professional numismatic service and certifies an unlimited warranty of authenticity for the lots it sells.

Lots can be viewed in our office in London, by prior appointment only. During the Live session you can see current lots and bid in real time, making it an easy and fast way to participate in the auction.

Should you have any questions, please send an e-mail.

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To browse through the complete auction click here.