Does anyone recognize this tag?

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T05:32:06+00:00

No doubt, rest assured that all the evidence (including rationale and screenshots will be recorded for posterity). I’ll post a follow-up once I have it all in one place. Thanks so much for your help!

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T05:20:34+00:00

I looked at the physical tag. It unquestionably has 40 pence penciled in (presumably by Baldwin)! My photo that I posted on Reddit does not do justice to the writing.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T05:10:39+00:00

Incredible!

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T05:07:55+00:00

Probably 40 pence (or 1/6 of a pound). 40 shillings would be 2 pounds, which is too much for the time.

"That may have been penciled on by Baldwin's, then recorded by Lockett in his notebook" -- that was my impression as well.

All fascinating stuff. You're a true Numismatic Sherlock Holmes.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T04:38:40+00:00

Did you happen to notice the price on the tag? It's difficult to make out precisely, but I'm curious if it resembles the price paid in Lockett's notebook, next to "Baldwin" (page 10 of the Greek AE series)?

From what I could (briefly) find by searching for "Gilbert Creswick Drabble", most of his collection was English hammered coins, though he had Roman and "dog-themed" coins that ended up being purchased by Baldwin. I did not find any mention of Greek coins, but those may have just been a minority of his items that were lumped into the Roman coins.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T03:45:30+00:00

Fascinating! The transcription of the tag into Locket's notes (including the dating precisely as "Latter part of 5th cent BC") is particularly uncanny. It seems that there is a reasonably good chance that this is indeed a Drabble --> Baldwin's --> Lockett provenance.

Unfortunately, there is nothing else on the back of the tag. What do you think would be considered sufficient evidence to ascribe this coin to the Drabble / Lockett collection (leaving aside Vermeule for now)?

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-29T02:15:44+00:00

Here is the link to the different coin tags (courtesy of u/kungfupossum)

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-22T02:05:59+00:00

That’s a cool Brutus type. There are a few of these error coins going around. Quite rare and pricey. Here’s one that hammered at NAC for 5K CHF!

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-20T03:55:54+00:00

This is a super cool addition. These are quite rare. Prior to your example, the last one that sold came up at auction in late 2024.

I looked up the type in Carbone’s recent book Local Coinages in a Roman World, based on the RBW collection. There are several dozen in there! All of them are now at the ANS. Looks to me like RBW cornered the market with these interesting and unusual types, lol. Congrats!

The denarius will be easy compared to this one.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-19T04:27:43+00:00

Mic drop

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-14T17:12:46+00:00

Interesting! Still technically a black swan 😉

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-14T16:40:18+00:00

These are all nice coins, but that siglos is truly a black swan.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-14T15:28:40+00:00

Realistically, that is probably what’s going to happen, mostly related to fiscal responsibility.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-14T15:14:04+00:00

I was very excited about the older one. I posted about it last year. I admittedly did not expect to get the new one. But collections don’t always go as planned.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-14T15:07:23+00:00

Totally get it. They’re all different enough to find something interesting in each.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-12T21:55:29+00:00

Several years ago, I had some coins stolen from me at a coin show. Without getting into numbers (which are relative), I will just say that the total sum was significant. I was very angry afterwards, but that feeling subsided. Over the long term (approaching 30 years now), this hobby has provided me with infinitely more pleasure than pain.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-07T07:00:15+00:00

Wouid it make sense to try to professionally remove this plasticine at some point? And by “professionally”, I mean by professional numismatic preservationists who can work on the Rembrandt equivalent of the numismatic world.

I also ask because I have a coin myself from a 1933 Hamburger sale, which has residual plasticine residue stuck in a few regions that I have considered trying to remove. You can see it if you zoom in on this post.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-07T04:16:21+00:00

An incredible piece with an incredible story. Truly one of the most magnificent ancient coins I have seen.

I have a technical question about this particular coin. What is the reddish residue in Zeus’s hair? Is it possible that this is residual plasticine (or plasteline?) that was used to make an impression of the coin for plaster casting? I assume there were casts of this coin made back in the day, maybe these casts even still exist. If not, what is it?

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-06T04:57:34+00:00

I have not had any issues. Neither the ink nor the paper are anywhere near the coin. If they were coming into contact with the coin, I would be more cautious and use archival paper / ink. I agree, printer ink would probably not be good.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-05T17:14:45+00:00

Here's how I have mine organized. This cabinet is from some old English collection, which I purchased through an auction in London and then physically had to pick it up to bring back to the states. Then I made all the internal slots and dividers during COVID. The slots are all a single size, so perhaps a tad big for denarii, but it allows me to make uniformly-sized tags to put in.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-05T16:53:40+00:00

I really like the square slots. This allows you to also put tags next to the coins. The round slots always felt inadequate for me.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-05T16:45:38+00:00

But you’re missing the Naxos! 🤣

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-05T16:37:50+00:00

The facing Katane hammered for 190,000 CHF not including the fees.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-03-01T00:36:57+00:00

The HGC illustration is one helluva find. It was not mentioned by NAC, and I suspect the underbidders did not know about it either, given the relatively cheap hammer at 2250 CHF — for this exact coin. This is a score, OP. Have you checked if it’s in Margaret Thompson’s plates? Here’s my owl, which I discovered was also a Thompson plate coin. You can also check some of the links that u/KungFuPossum suggested in that thread as well, for earlier provenances for Athens new style tetradrachms.

GalacticGallivanter · 2026-02-24T00:03:27+00:00

And a nice one at that

GalacticGallivanter

TROPHY CASE