23-06-2018 – 01-01-1970
Live Auction 41
Naville Numismatics’ Live Auction 41
Naville Numismatics Live Auction 41 features a selection of 681 lots of Greek, Roman, Byzantine coins, all chosen with contribution from NAC’s experts. The sale will close on Sunday 24 June 2018, 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.
Lot 2: Etruria. Populonia. 20 asses, circa 320-280. Good Very Fine. Starting bid: 250 GBP.
The sale begins with a selection of coins, including bronzes and fractions, from Magna Graecia and Sicily, some of them from the E.E. Clain-Stefanelli Collection sold in association with Stacks Bowers Galleries.
This section of the sale includes coins from rare mints such as Populonia, Capua, Brundisium, Caelia, Uxentum, Caulonia, Locri, Tauromenium and Thermae Himerensis and also offers an attractive series of coins from Tarentum, Heraclea, Metapontum, Caulonia, Croton, Agrigentum, Catana, Syracuse, Athens and Corinth, even beyond a selection of tetradrachms of Alexander III the Great and Hellenistic portraits of Seleucid, Parthic and Ptolemaic kings.
Lot 31: Sicily. Catana. Tetradrachm, circa 430. Very rare. Very Fine. Starting bid: 1,750 GBP.
Highlights include a very rare nomos of Heraclea with the facing head of Athena on obverse, a beautiful tetradrachm of Catana (ex NAC sale Q, 2006, 1167) and a rare tetradrachm of Syracuse (ex NAC sale Q, 2006, 1265).
Lot 389: Roman Republic. Quadrigatus. Sicily, 214-212. About Extremely Fine. Starting bid: 600 GBP.
The Roman selection boasts an interesting series of Roman Republican bronzes and a striking array of denarii. This includes a well preserved quadrigatus with the corn ear, a beautiful denarius of L. C. Memmiuss L. F. Galeria, an interesting denarius of L. Papius with the pileii as symbols, a beautiful denarius of M. Iunius Brutus, a rare denarius of C. Antius C.f. Restio, a rare denarius of Iulius Caesar with L. Aemilius Buca, a rare denarius of M. Antonius with divus Caesar and a scarce cistophoric tetradrachm of M. Antonius and Cleopatra.
In this part, there is also an interesting selection of Republican portraits such as Iulius Caesar, Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra.
Lot 528: Titus Caesar, 69-79. Sestertius, circa AD 72. Rare, attractive dark green patina, gently smoothed and somewhat tooled, otherwise Good Very Fine. Starting bid: 1,500 GBP.
The Imperial selection of the sale features an attractive series of Augustus as well as an attractive aureus with Caius and Lucius caesares, a beautiful tetradrachm of Augustus, a rare denarius of Antonia, a beautiful and rare denarius of Vitellius, a rare sestertius of Titus with the Judaea Capta on reverse, an interesting aureus of Septimius Severus, even beyond a selection of denarii, tetradrachms, sestertii, dupondii, quadrantes, asses, solidi and siliquae which included Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Faustina I, Lucius Verus, Lucilla, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Clodius Albinus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Gordian III, Philip I, Philip II, Julian II, Valentinian I, Jovian, Honorius, Valentinian III and Aelia Zenonis.
There is also remarkable as a very rare denarius of Augustus with his the Aegypto capta and his head left on obverse.
Lot 661: Lot of five coins. Syracuse unless stated. V-VI cent., bronze. Heraclius, decanummium year GII Catania; Heraclius, follis; Heraclius with Heraclius Constantine, follis; Constans II, follis; Constantine V and Leo IV, follis. About Very Fine-Very Fine. From the Spahr collection. Sold with the original collector’s ticket. Starting bid: 35 GBP.
For the Byzantine section, Naville Numismatics is proud to offer for sale the Spahr collection of Sicilian Byzantine coins. Rodolfo Spahr (Catania 3.11.1894-Binningen 15.12.1981), son of Johann Rudolf and Anna Ida Schweizer, was born in Catania where his father had a business in textiles. He spent his infancy there and eventually served in the Swiss army. A love for his birth town spurred him to study the history of Sicily, and in due course he went on to produce two books (Le monete siciliane dagli Aragonesi ai Borboni [1282-1836], 1959 (rist. 1982) and Le monete siciliane dai Bizantini a Carlo I d’Angiò [582-1282] 1976) that, still to this date, remain the fundamental reference works for every collector of Sicilian coins from the Middle Ages to the closure of the mint of Palermo. He also wrote many articles that were published in the Bollettino del Circolo Numismatico Napoletano. Naville Numismatics hopes that collectors interested in this period will relish this opportunity to own specimens formerly belonging to this collection and that they will share the same emotions felt by their previous owner.
Lot 677: Messina. Constance of Hohenstaufen and Peter of Aragona, 1282-1285. Pierreale, 1282-1285. Rare, Extremely Fine. Starting bid: 1,750 GBP.
In addition the auction presents an interesting selection of Medieval and Modern World coins, as well as an interesting solidus of Benevento struck by duke Gregory and a rare and beautiful Pierreale of Messina struck by Constance of Hohenstaufen and Peter of Aragona
Lot 384: Egypt. Trajan, 98-117. Drachm. Extremely rare, only two specimens listed in RPC, nice brown tone and Good Very Fine/Very Fine. From the Dattari collection. Starting bid: 500 GBP.
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 following years this number of coins more than doubled.
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.
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