Need help with coin ticket

[madhatter]

Hello all,

Recently I received a coin with an (old?) ticket, which im trying to decode, with questionable success. The part im mostly interested in is the ownership history - auction house, collector, dealer, or whatever is written on the back side of the ticket. I would apreciate any help!

[Roerbakmix]

Hi,

 

last picture is a bit unsharp. Could you include photos of the coin?

[John Conduitt]

Could be from the Glendining sale of Lord Grantley’s collection in 1944, with 2420 the lot number

Edited November 11, 2022 by John Conduitt

[Deinomenid]

Madhatter,

Is the coin a Caracalla?

If so, you have a match to John's suggestion.

2420 is described as "Another lot, varied, many fine." The prior is all Caracalla, chiefly fine.

[madhatter]

Here are dealers pics of the coin. Im still unable to check it in hand. Nоticed some inaccuracies in the ticked, but still interested in gettin a full picture there

[Deinomenid]

I've no idea if its the same coin or the label is accurate but  if it is correct and all above board, you have a likely match.

That catalogue is available  online  but I don't think it came with images. Wartime printing issue maybe.

Grantley's an interesting character, worth a read around. Educated Harrow and Dresden (rare to non-existent combination now!),   born Florence.

[Spaniard]

15 minutes ago, madhatter said:

Nоticed some inaccuracies

Yes....The coin looks to be RIC#261c

Caracalla AR Antoninianus. 216 AD. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, radiate cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / P M TR P XVIII COS IIII P P, Serapis/Pluto seated left wearing polos, holding scepter, & reaching toward three-headed dog Cerberus seated to left. RSC 299a.

 

[Deinomenid]

Here's that catalogue.

https://archive.org/details/catalogueofgreek00glen_21/page/30/mode/2up

If you're English, that building in the book's still there. Right by Liberty's.

Well, even if you are not English, it's still there!

[madhatter]

Thank you @Spaniard 

Yes, in my inventory it will come as RIC261c

Thank you @Deinomenid If the ownership history confirms it would be sweeet surprice

[Spaniard]

Moving away from the ticket ....

The coin is a lovely example!

Great detail especially on the obverse portrait with nice hair/beard detail.....Cool coin!

[Deinomenid]

Just re this "The part I'm mostly interested in is the ownership history - auction house, collector" here's some  more  background that's harder to  find on the owner. There's a biography on the BNJ, but it's polite and  ignores much of the "fun" about the ownership history. (It also suggests his coins were magnificent which compliments Spaniard's view on this coin.)

 

The fifth Lord Grantley (1855-1943) was an eccentric and extremely wealthy landowner whose

numismatic interests, if his son's account can be trusted, were partly engendered by the need

for a hobby as a result of the social ostracism he experienced after his involvement in a divorce

scandal in 1879. His collection of some 50,000 coins ultimately became one of the largest

formed by a single person, and it was certainly one of the finest. It was universal in scope, and

many of the coins were acquired in their countries of origin. Lord Grantley was an inveterate

traveller and haunted antique shops, but he also bought extensively at many important sales

over five decades. The end of the collection came in 1943-45. Miscellaneous duplicates, hoard

material and his large and important Indian collection had already been sold off at Sotheby's

on 3rd February 1914 and Schulman of Amsterdam on 10th May 1912 and 12th December 1921.

In March 1943, however, at the age of 87, Lord Grantley found himself again co-respondent

in a divorce case. When he died the following August his son had no alternative but to sell the

whole collection, partly to pay death duties and partly to provide the €10,000 which his father

had left to the lady involved whom, but for his untimely death, he would have married.

The coins were disposed of in eleven huge sales at Glendining's spread over the next eighteen

months. The catalogues, prepared in great haste by Leonard Forrer of Spink's, are very summary

and because of war conditions very inadequately illustrated, so that they quite fail to do justice

to the magnificence of the collection. Nor were the sales a financial success, for the absence

of continental competition meant that a high proportion of lots were bought, often at derisory

prices, by London dealers.

 

 

 

 

[madhatter]

10 hours ago, Spaniard said:

Moving away from the ticket ....

The coin is a lovely example!

Great detail especially on the obverse portrait with nice hair/beard detail.....Cool coin!

Thank you! I think it need slightly cleaning, especially on reverse, but since im not a specialist, i will leave it like it is.

[Roerbakmix]

On 11/12/2022 at 9:15 AM, madhatter said:

Thank you! I think it need slightly cleaning, especially on reverse, but since im not a specialist, i will leave it like it is.

I would advise against it; the overall nice patina would probably be harmed.