Added another Antony to my Imperatorial collection with a wonderful provenance

[red_spork]

I've had this coin on my list for the better part of a year now after originally spotting it at in a dealer's inventory and being really impressed with how crisp Sol is and how much of the legend this coin has, even with the bit of flat striking. I made an offer last year but it went ignored(it was probably too low), so with the weakening Euro I decided to have another run at it and managed to acquire it at a USD price pretty close to my original offer. In the time I've been watching this coin I found a really wonderful provenance for it as well with a tangential connection to one of my favorite authors, detailed below.

This denarius of Antony was struck Summer 38 BC in Athens. On the obverse of this coin is Antony, portrayed in the priestly robes and with the lituus of an Augur, likely Antony's attempt at stressing his adherence to traditional Republican values in opposition to Octavian who was driving towards autocracy. The reverse features a bust of Sol, a symbol of the East, in this case likely attempting to show that affairs in the East were still important to Antony, who had recently returned from Italy where he had been for much of 40 and 39 BC.

Roman Imperatorial period AR Denarius(3.82g), Marcus Antonius, Summer 38 B.C., Athens. Marcus, veiled and wearing the priestly robes of an augur, standing right, holding lituus in right hand; M•ANTONIVS•M•F•M•N•AVGVR•I(MP)•TE(RT) around clockwise. Border of dots / Radiate head of Sol right; III•VIR•R•P•C•COS•DESIG•ITER•ET•TERT around clockwise. Border of dots. Sear HCRI 267; Crawford 533/2; BMCRR East 141;

Purchased from Numismatica Varesina, 8 July 2022, ex John Cosmo Stuart Rashleigh Collection, Part I, Glendining, 14th-16th January 1953, lot 427

This coin is actually much darker than this photo really shows. Here is a second photo taken from my phone that shows just how dark the reverse is in-hand. It's really a very pleasing looking tone

This coin has a wonderful provenance to Part I of the John Cosmo Stuart Rashleigh collection, sold at Glendining 14th-16th January 1953. Rashleigh was an English collector who formed his collection from the mid 1930s up through its sale in 1953. There was also an earlier Rashleigh collection, primarily English coins, assembled by his grandfather and sold at Sotheby's in 1909.

If you're a fan of Daphne du Maurier's work as I am you may be surprised to learn that Manderley, the setting of du Maurier's "Rebecca" was inspired by Menabilly, seat of the Rashleigh family. She came across the dilapidated mansion early in life during a family trip and fell in love with it, spending considerable time outside staring in and appreciating it from afar, and even writing some about it. Some years later, J C S Rashleigh agreed to lease it to her and she lived there several years and made considerable renovations before returning it to the Rashleigh family.

Below I've attached scans from the catalog, along with a portrait of J C S Rashleigh from the introduction of the Glendining catalog

[jdmKY]

Here’s mine, but it doesn’t have a wonderful provenance like @red_spork.

[NewStyleKing]

And at this time, the Neos Dyosinos ( Anthony) introduced the denarius as the proper coinage along with the Cistaphoros  and the NewStyle  had died a death. c42 BC.  The NewStyle had become a relic by this stage, almost certainly  a token produced by individuals  or  corporations  in memoriam.

 

I have 2 examples!