Acquiring my perfect provenanced plated denarius after 7 years of hunting

[red_spork]

This week I bought a coin I've been watching for and hoping would show up for sale for 7 years. I've not been watching for an example of this type but this exact coin. You see this coin is an example of a plated hybrid of Crawford 422/1a and 1b. It was previously in the Haeberlin and Mabbott collections and cited by Bahrfeldt and Crawford. Crawford, specifically citing this coin, declared that these hybrids only exist as plated coins and rejected the type and that was the last word on it, until about 7 years ago, when I purchased an example from a dealer of one of these hybrids that appeared to be solid silver. After subsequent testing confirmed it was solid silver and not plated, Richard Schaefer and I wrote a short paper where we argued that there are some actual official solid silver examples of these hybrids, likely struck as the mint was transitioning from the 1a dies to the 1b dies, and showed that my solid silver example was linked to two otherwise entirely normal examples of 422/1a and 422/1b. We also cited a few other coins that had showed up at dealers over the years and appeared to be solid but whose current whereabouts were unknown and thus, unable to be tested. Schaefer and I also cited and illustrated this specific plated example in our paper to give readers some more context for what Crawford and other authors had seen over the years. We were happy to find a digital image of the coin when it sold at CNG in 2007 as part of the Karl Sifferman collection but with no other provenance listed and we used that image as our illustration.

Ever since we wrote that paper I've hoped this coin might come up for sale again and I've been diligently looking at just abut every RRC 422/1 denarius that appeared on the market, so I was positively giddy when I saw it in the CNG e-sale that just ended. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was the coin I've been hunting for for all these years. For me it ticks several boxes which conspire to make it a very desirable coin for me: I wanted a plated example of this variety, just to complement my solid example but most of the plated examples known to me were in museums. I also wanted a fouree(of any type) for my collection but so many fourees are grotty, ugly coins and you rarely see nicely provenanced examples except for very rare and expensive types like Cornuficius or Eid Mar and the fourees I've bought over the years always ended up being cast away once I decide they're just too ugly. Finally there's the sentimental aspect since it was illustrated in the first paper I published. For all these reasons I placed what was probably a stupidly high bid on this coin as it was closing and thankfully it hammered for a fraction of my max.

 

Roman Republic AR Plated denarius(2.84g, 18mm). Imitating M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus, 58 BC, Rome mint. Camel right; before, kneeling figure, holding reins in left hand and olive-branch tied with fillet in right hand; above, M SCAVR; on either side, EX SC; below, AED CVR. Border of dots / Jupiter in quadriga left, holding reins in left hand and hurling thunderbolt with right hand, ; above, P HVPSAEVS; AID CVR in two lines. Below, C HVPSAE COS; PREIVER in two lines. On right, CAPTV upwards. Border of dots. Crawford 422/1-(obverse 422/1a, reverse 422/1b), cf. Bahrfeldt, Nachtrage i, page 13(this coin cited) and pl. I, 9(this reverse die); Jordan Montgomery & Richard Schaefer "A Doubted Variety of M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautus Hypsaeus Vindicated" in KOINON I, 2018, pl I, 6(this coin)

Ex CNG e-auction 574, 7 November 2024, 347, ex Karl Sifferman Collection, CNG e-Auction 171, 22 August 2007, 209, ex Thomas Olive Mabbott Collection, part two, Hans Schulman New York 27-29 October 1969, 4107, ex Ernst Justus Haeberlin Collection, Cahn-Hess 17 July 1933, 2336
 

For comparison, here's my solid silver example of this variety, the so-called "discovery coin" since it was the first to confirm undoubtedly the existence of solid silver examples:

Roman Republic AR denarius(3.80g, 18.31mm). M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus, 58 BC, Rome mint. Camel right; before, kneeling figure, holding reins in left hand and olive-branch tied with fillet in right hand; above, M SCAVR; on either side, EX SC; below, AED CVR. Border of dots / Jupiter in quadriga left, holding reins in left hand and hurling thunderbolt with right hand, ; above, P HVPSAEVS; AED CVR in two lines. Below, C HVPSAE COS; PREIVER in two lines. On right, CAPTVM upwards. Border of dots. Crawford 422/1-(obverse 422/1a, reverse 422/1b), cf. Bahrfeldt, Nachtrage i, pl. I, 9, Jordan Montgomery & Richard Schaefer "A Doubted Variety of M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautus Hypsaeus Vindicated" in KOINON I, 2018, pl I, 1(this coin)


Some miscellanea:
Bahrfeldt's comments on my coin in 1896 after he had apparently seen it in Dr, Haeberlin's collection:


Haeberlin plate & text:

Mabbott plate & text, I find it interesting Mabbott cited the 1933 date but not the Haeberlin collection, perhaps he bought this coin from a dealer shortly after the sale:

 

As always, feel free to share anything relevant

Edited November 9, 2024 by red_spork

[CPK]

Awesome acquisition, @red_spork! Congratulations!

[Roman Collector]

Wow!! That blows my mind that the exact specimen you were looking for finally came on the market! That's an impressive amount of scholarship. Well done! 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

It's a most satisfying addition to an impressive collection.  It's also one of my favorite types.  That is pretty darn fortunate that this particular example came on the market.

[red_spork]

I recently moved and most of my library has been packed up but tonight I unpacked a few different books and found my coin discussed in two of them. One I knew about, RRC, and one I had forgotten about, BMCRR:
RRC appendix 288

And BMCRR I p484 footnote 1 which references the Haeberlin(now my) specimen:

[AncientJoe]

Congratulations! Waiting for that exact coin requires a remarkable amount of patience and restraint but clearly paid off.

[panzerman]

Gorgeous coin! All your hard work paid off😊

 

Thanks for sharing coin and references!

John

[red_spork]

9 hours ago, AncientJoe said:

Congratulations! Waiting for that exact coin requires a remarkable amount of patience and restraint but clearly paid off.

It does help that I didn't see a single other example of one of these plated hybrids for sale during that time. A nice solid example from the same dies as my solid coin sold a couple years ago but I couldn't quite bring myself to bid only because I knew I couldn't sell my existing example for sentimental reasons and as such, shouldn't acquire a duplicate.

[JAZ Numismatics]

Congratulations on spearing that white whale! Second-best feeling in the world.

[Sulla80]

Amazing, @red_spork, congratulations on an impossible find!

Edited November 9, 2024 by Sulla80

[Qcumbor]

Great acquisition, well deserved after all the amount of work and sleuthing !

Q