rNumis

Right. Everything seems to be in focus (background, brush bristles..very nice bristles by the way)...but not the coins 😄 So...very hard to say. Taking pictures one coin at a time could help so the camera doesn't get any background to focus on. Try again!! Does take practice. Cheers, Steve

They are beasts! I have a bunch of them in a double width red box, and I can barely lift it 😄

Just a heads up. I've listed a group of 7 older auction catalogs from M&M Basel in The Cabinet. Basically free (asking for small postage cost). Cheers, Steve

Great project! There are some real rarities in those coins.

These are actually what got me started collecting, way back in the distant past.

Here's one from the cover of the Spring 1988 Monetarium Fixed Price List. Looking at the coins in this thread, I notice that the nymph's raised hand is sometimes quite stylized (like this one) and sometimes far more realistic. I don't own any examples, sadly.

Arrived today. Some great looking chapters! Thanks again @akeady

Very true. And then, of course, there was Hipponion in Calabria (later Vibo Valentia). However, I'm pretty sure there were no hippos there, back in the day or even now 😄. Always liked the name though.

Good idea. I also have some auction catalogs covering antiquities and coins that I'd happily give away for the price of the postage, just to help out my sagging bookshelves 😄. If not, I can always just post them here with the word FREE in the title.

Thank you for the recommendation! Super happy the rnumis links to the online auction catalogs helped you locate some hidden provenances, especially a Haeberlin! That's awesome. One day if the provenance part of my website expands to Roman, I hope you'll be able to find these connections much more easily. Currently, you still have to look for Roman coins through a bunch of (online) catalogs. Better than nothing, but could be easier. One day! Thanks again and happy hunting! Steve

I went to France not too long ago, and just before I left a friend emailed me saying "Ha ha ha..enjoy ze rosbif". I thought about that for a very long time before I finally understood what he'd said. 😄

Ah yes, the Great Courses. I bought many of their DVDs years ago. I have watched Garrett Fagan's courses many times. I have others too, but he was my favorite. Sadly, he passed away in 2017.

Hi @antwerpen2306 That's really very nice! I've always wanted one of these. In my ongoing sweep through the earlier 20th C auctions, I've found 22 plated examples of coins from Phistelia so far. You can see them here: Phistelia at rNumis Over half of those 22 are the much heavier didrachms, I suppose because they sell for much bigger $, and back then it would have been an easier decision to photograph them.

This is hefty coin that I got last year from Roma. Quite a contrast to the tiny Eryx litra I showed earlier. APULIA | Luceria - Cast Quincunx 217-212 BC Æ 42.32g HGC 601 (S), Vecchi 2013 345 ex Roma Numismatics E-Sale 91 (December 2021), lot 60 (sorry again for the bad image...I'll retake all these at some point)

@akeady Thanks for the recommendation Aidan - just ordered it from Amazon. It's $50 for the new softcover...not exactly cheap, but for a 600+ page collection of diverse articles by some well known authors, it seems not exactly expensive either 😄. From the description: "...The subsequent thirty-two chapters, all written by an international group of distinguished scholars, cover a vast geography and chronology, beginning with the first evidence of coins in Western Asia Minor in the seventh century BCE and continuing up to the transformation of coinage at the end of the Roman Empire. " Looking forward to reading it!

BnF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) is continuing its project of scanning numismatic auction catalogs and making them available online at their gallica website. Recently they've turned their attention to the incredible series of Bank Leu sales. Not all are there yet, but many are, and more have appeared just recently. I'm creating links to the gallica online catalogs over at rNumis, as I see them being added, and you can find the Leu sales here: https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=LEU In addition to providing a great online resource, they also allow the catalogs to be downloaded, which is great if you want to build your own digital numismatic library.

Awesome!!! Thank you so much!

Numisforums - great start! Enjoying it here so far. Will be even better if we get a Numismatic Literature sub going (@Restitutor 🙂) CoinTalk -Was never able to join despite months of trying last year - always the same "server error, try again later". Admins never responded to my help requests. Gave up. Forvm - joined last year. Has its good and bad points, like anywhere. I was initially active but less so now. There are some very good people there and the expertise level is excellent, but for whatever reason it's quieter than perhaps it should be (or used to be?). Sometimes there's a really interesting thread, but generally I find there's too much emphasis on fake detection. They're very good at it and I know it's important, but often it seems every other conversation is about fakes. Also, the site interface is now quite old and a bit fragile. However, it is being generously and freely provided by the dealer-owner so I shouldn't really criticize it too much. Facebook - joined a couple of groups to test the waters but didn't really go very far with it. Inactive. Reddit/Twitter/Instagram - never have, and likely never will. Discord - never even heard of it

This is my Litra from Eryx. Tiny little thing - 0.63g. Quite scarce, and how can you not like those Sicilian crabs?! (sorry for the poor image...I really need to work on a better photography setup 🙂).

Hi @Restitutor. Any thoughts on a new literature forum? Many thanks, and for creating this site in general. Steve

Hi @jfp7375. Great question. Would you be able to start a new thread for this, as I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion? At some point if we do get a new forum, these topics can all be moved there. Thanks! Cheers Steve

Do people think this would be a good idea here? I'm happy to post about numismatic books and auction catalogs in the 'General' forum, but maybe a dedicated section might be better for literature discussions? Cheers, Steve

Thank you, Joe! I'm glad you're finding it useful. Any suggestions, please let me know here, any time. You're definitely not blind. The rNumis Provenance Databases do cover just Italy/Sicily at present, and I'm nowhere near done with those. While I'm up to 8000+ records (enough where a collector already uncovered some unknown provenances from ~100 years ago), there are many, many more auctions with Italy/Sicily lots still to be processed. The project is mostly just me working spare time, though I'm grateful to have had some help recently with image extraction for a few old auctions. Getting even Italy/Sicily close to completion is going to take another 2-3 years if it remains just me. I'd love to extend the concept to other regions, Roman Emperors...anything really, but haven't decided yet on the best way to do that, and I'd almost certainly need help. Still thinking about it all and these conversations and feedback are very helpful. Steve

A Numismatic Literature forum sounds like a great idea to me 👍

Hi Ryro and thank you! The main (black) bar at the top of each rnumis page should show an EXPLORE menu. There you should see a link to Ancient Greek Coin Provenance. Let me know if you have any issues! Thanks! Cheers, Steve