Anyone have any information about the "A.K. Collection"?

[DonnaML]

I am 98% sure I know who "A.K." was, after doing quite a bit of research inspired by a suggestion by another member here. Since the individual -- who was quite well-known as a numismatist and a writer on numismatics under his own name, rather than simply a random private collector -- is deceased, I wouldn't consider disclosing the name at this point an invasion of privacy. It's just a question of finding the time to set out the evidence. 

[Curtis JJ]

I haven't commented in this thread yet (though I previously read through it)... I've got a handful of the AK coins (at least 8), most of which are Alexandrian.

I particularly like the Alexandrian since a lot of them were acquired in the 1960s and 1970s and/or come from notable collections, and because many or most are published in Kellner's 2009 book, Die Münzstätte Alexandria in Ägypten..., which was originally published as a series of articles in the Austrian periodical, MoneyTrend.

 

For anyone who has AK Collection coins but only knows the Triton group lot, there are "AK Supplements" for most (maybe all?) of the Triton Sales that list the coins individually, with photos and, most importantly, their prior provenances. (There's a website (https://ak.cngcoins.com), but they remove the old listings when the new Tritons are posted. Sometimes you can dig up the old descriptions on the archived pages for old Tritons in the WayBack Machine/Internet Archive [40 captures since 2012].)

The print copies are very hard to find, but some are available as PDFs online. (Now that I think of it, I've never tried contacting CNG to see if they still have extra print copies...). They all list A LOT of individual coins. Always worth checking, since many coins on the market have lost their provenance to AK (and to their older sales/collections decades earlier). There may be more of the AK Supplements somewhere online, but these are the ones I've found (missing quite a few, first should be Triton XII in 2009):

• Triton XVI AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog = 8 Jan 2013
• Triton XVIII AK Collection Supplement = 5 Jan 2015 = Descriptions only, available on WayBack Machine: Lot 973; Lot 974; Lot 975; Lot 976; Lot 977; Lot 978; Lot 979; Lot 980; Lot 981; Lot 982; Lot 983; Lot 984.
• Triton XXI AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog [.pdf saved] = 9 January 2018
• Triton XXII AK Collection Supplement = 7 Jan 2019 = Descriptions only, WayBack Machine: Lot 1140; Lot 1141; Lot 1142; Lot 1143; Lot 1144; Lot 1145; Lot 1146; Lot 1147; Lot 1148; Lot 1149; Lot 1150; Lot 1151.
• Triton XXIII AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog [.pdf saved] [ACSearch record] = 14 January 2020

 

My favorite is this Antoninus Pius Drachm. It was previously in the collections of Hans Steger (1875-1937; Münzhandlung Basel, Auktion 6, but not illustrated) and August Voirol (1884-1967; reportedly), acquired from Frank Sternberg (1912-1994; stock or collection?).

Published in Kellner's 2009 book, and previously in 2003 in his article on “Die Muenzstatte Alexandria in Aegypten – 7. Teil: Antoninus Pius (bis zum Jahr 10),” p. 165, Abb. 26. He discussed the piercings a bit, which are of a style often see on Alexandrian Drachms. He described them as having been used as funerary amulets. As I see it, the placement of the piercings makes it clear they were usually used to display the reverse (not the imperial portrait).

 

One of my other Alexandrian AK Collection / Kellner Plate Coins was also pierced, this one was in the ETB Collection for a while. (Eric ten Brink -- no secret there!) Hadrian Obol from the Athribis Nome. The photo from the book:

 

I've got four on one page from Claudius Gothicus!

Edited January 31 by Curtis JJ

[Hrefn]

On 7/2/2022 at 10:30 PM, DonnaML said:

Whoever A.K. was, a lot of his or her coins were sold by CNG in 2017.  I bought my A.K. Collection coin a couple of years ago from Sphinx Numismatics, which was offering several of them:

Julia Domna, AR Denarius ca. 201 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust right, hair waved vertically and fastened in large bun in back, IVLIA AVGVSTA / Rev. Isis, wearing polos on head, draped, standing three-quarters right, head right, holding the nursing infant Horus in left arm against left breast, with her right hand holding a wreath or other ring-shaped object against her chest, her left foot against prow of galley, right, and her left knee bent with Horus resting on it; to left of Isis, rudder rests against altar; SAECVLI FELICITAS.  RIC IV-1 577 (p. 170), RSC III 174 (ill.), Sear RCV II 6606, BMCRE 166. 18x20 mm., 3.35 g., 6 h. Ex CNG Triton XX Auction, Jan. 10, 2017, part of Lot # 614, No. E027; from A.K. Collection.

Perhaps the Triton XX catalog, which is probably available online, has more information.

@DonnaML, I think your Isis is not holding an object in her right hand, rather her breast.  Here is a fresco from Karanis, near the pyramids, of Isis.

Seems very similar to me.  Cannot post a direct link, but you can find it https://www.lib.umich.edu with search terms Isis and Karanis.   

[DonnaML]

6 hours ago, Hrefn said:

@DonnaML, I think your Isis is not holding an object in her right hand, rather her breast.  Here is a fresco from Karanis, near the pyramids, of Isis.

Seems very similar to me.  Cannot post a direct link, but you can find it https://www.lib.umich.edu with search terms Isis and Karanis.   

@Hrefn, here's an excerpt from a post of mine on Coin Talk on May 9, 2020, addressing this very issue in response to a post from @Roman Collector:

[L]ike you, I had assumed that the object in Isis's right hand on the reverse of my Julia Domna denarius is probably her right breast, even though it seems clear that the infant Horus is nursing at her left breast. I am now persuaded from the examples in your thread that what she's actually holding is definitely a wreath or some other large ring-shaped object. Here are three other examples making that clear, out of the 23 examples of the Rome version of denarius on OCRE; the first two are from the ANS's collection and the third is from the Münzkabinett der Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Düsseldorf:

http://numismatics.org/collectionimages/19001949/1948/1948.19.1539.rev.noscale.jpg



http://numismatics.org/collectionimages/19001949/1944/1944.100.51309.rev.noscale.jpg



http://www3.hhu.de/muenzkatalog/ikmk/image/ID1612/rs_exp.jpg



I also took what I think is a somewhat clearer photo of the reverse of my example of the coin, and created a closeup detail of that part of the reverse, and think these photos make the object look a little less like a breast and a little more like a ring-shaped object:





So I have now revised my personal catalogue's description of my coin to say the following:

Julia Domna, AR Denarius ca. 201 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust right, hair waved vertically and fastened in large bun in back, IVLIA AVGVSTA / Rev. Isis, wearing polos on head, draped, standing three-quarters right, head right, holding the nursing infant Horus in left arm against left breast, with her right hand holding a wreath or other ring-shaped object against her chest, her left foot against prow, right, and her left knee bent with Horus resting on it; to left of Isis, rudder rests against altar; SAECVLI FELICITAS. RIC IV-1 577 (p. 170), RSC III 174 (ill.), Sear RCV II 6606, BMCRE 166. 18x20 mm., 3.35 g., 6 h. Ex. A.K. Collection; ex. CNG Triton XX Auction, Jan. 10, 2017, part of Lot # 614, No. E027.

See https://www.cointalk.com/threads/roman-imperial-coin-with-isis-and-horus-on-the-reverse.359651/page-2#post-4487818

[DonnaML]

13 hours ago, Curtis JJ said:

I haven't commented in this thread yet (though I previously read through it)... I've got a handful of the AK coins (at least 8), most of which are Alexandrian.

I particularly like the Alexandrian since a lot of them were acquired in the 1960s and 1970s and/or come from notable collections, and because many or most are published in Kellner's 2009 book, Die Münzstätte Alexandria in Ägypten..., which was originally published as a series of articles in the Austrian periodical, MoneyTrend.

 

For anyone who has AK Collection coins but only knows the Triton group lot, there are "AK Supplements" for most (maybe all?) of the Triton Sales that list the coins individually, with photos and, most importantly, their prior provenances. (There's a website (https://ak.cngcoins.com), but they remove the old listings when the new Tritons are posted. Sometimes you can dig up the old descriptions on the archived pages for old Tritons in the WayBack Machine/Internet Archive [40 captures since 2012].)

The print copies are very hard to find, but some are available as PDFs online. (Now that I think of it, I've never tried contacting CNG to see if they still have extra print copies...). They all list A LOT of individual coins. Always worth checking, since many coins on the market have lost their provenance to AK (and to their older sales/collections decades earlier). There may be more of the AK Supplements somewhere online, but these are the ones I've found (missing quite a few, first should be Triton XII in 2009):

• Triton XVI AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog = 8 Jan 2013
• Triton XVIII AK Collection Supplement = 5 Jan 2015 = Descriptions only, available on WayBack Machine: Lot 973; Lot 974; Lot 975; Lot 976; Lot 977; Lot 978; Lot 979; Lot 980; Lot 981; Lot 982; Lot 983; Lot 984.
• Triton XXI AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog [.pdf saved] = 9 January 2018
• Triton XXII AK Collection Supplement = 7 Jan 2019 = Descriptions only, WayBack Machine: Lot 1140; Lot 1141; Lot 1142; Lot 1143; Lot 1144; Lot 1145; Lot 1146; Lot 1147; Lot 1148; Lot 1149; Lot 1150; Lot 1151.
• Triton XXIII AK Collection Supplement Virtual Catalog [.pdf saved] [ACSearch record] = 14 January 2020

 

My favorite is this Antoninus Pius Drachm. It was previously in the collections of Hans Steger (1875-1937; Münzhandlung Basel, Auktion 6, but not illustrated) and August Voirol (1884-1967; reportedly), acquired from Frank Sternberg (1912-1994; stock or collection?).

Published in Kellner's 2009 book, and previously in 2003 in his article on “Die Muenzstatte Alexandria in Aegypten – 7. Teil: Antoninus Pius (bis zum Jahr 10),” p. 165, Abb. 26. He discussed the piercings a bit, which are of a style often see on Alexandrian Drachms. He described them as having been used as funerary amulets. As I see it, the placement of the piercings makes it clear they were usually used to display the reverse (not the imperial portrait).

 

One of my other Alexandrian AK Collection / Kellner Plate Coins was also pierced, this one was in the ETB Collection for a while. (Eric ten Brink -- no secret there!) Hadrian Obol from the Athribis Nome. The photo from the book:

 

I've got four on one page from Claudius Gothicus!

Thanks, @Curtis JJ. As far as I know, the one Triton AK Collection supplemental catalog you don't list that's still available online for download is the Triton XXV AK Collection catalog from January 2022. See https://issuu.com/cngcoins/docs/ak_collection_triton_xxv_virtual_catalog.

In sum, the only Triton AK Collection supplemental catalogs presently available online for download are those for Triton XVI, XXIII, and XXV. The one for Triton XXI is also available online (see https://issuu.com/cngcoins/docs/ak_triton_xxi ), but appears to be impossible to download. I'm not sure how you were able to obtain the pdf, but if you have it and can please email a copy to me, I'd appreciate it!

I'm attaching pdf copies of the AK Collection supplemental catalogs for Triton XVI, XXIII, and XXV for anyone who wants to download them, in case they're removed from issuu.com in the future.

Triton XVI AK Collection.pdf Triton XXIII AK Collection Lots (Gallienus, Valerian I, Roman Alexandria of same, & various 3rd century Provincials).pdf Triton XXV AK Collection Lots Gallienus, Salonina, various Provincial Bronzes & Pseudo-Autonomous Provincial bronzes.pdf