A Remarkable Acquisition

Here’s a recent addition to my collection that I got for my birthday, and has quickly become a favourite.

Lydia.  AE24, 6.51g, of Philadelphia, modern-day Alaşehir in Turkey, semi-autonomous issue, circa 198-268 CE, obverse; ΔHMOC, youthful bust of Demos (the People) right, wearing tania, reverse; ΦΛ ΦIΛAΔELΦЄΩN, lion walking right, NЄΩKOP / Ω, in two lines, in exergue, N EF

What makes this coin truly special is its provenance. This term is used to refer to an object’s history of ownership, in this case after being dug up. It’s useful because it reduces the risk of the piece being a forgery and ensures that the coin hasn’t been recently looted, protecting it legally. Collectors will often pay a premium for an example with older provenance, and even more for one previously owned by a notable collector. 

 On the eBay description of this piece, it was noted the coin had appeared as part of lot 384 in Sotheby’s Brand Sale, part 7, 1984. Virgil M. Brand (1861/2-1926) was an American collector with a massive varied collection of 368,000 coins, some of which were especially desirable¹. I asked if anyone had access to this catalogue on an online forum, and one member kindly replied with some photos of the lot’s listing. Lot 384 included three coins from the same city (Philadelphia in Lydia), and this one was described as “lion walking right (B.M.C 42 var.), about extremely fine’. Unfortunately, without photos of these in the catalogue, I couldn’t verify this was the same coin. The listing did explain, however, that the coin used to be no. 6883 of the H. Weber collection.

   Sir Hermann D. Weber (1823-1918) was a German physician who worked in England, treating five prime ministers and being knighted in 1899. He collected ancient coins in retirement, travelling around Europe and the Middle East². Fortunately, I found the catalogues of Weber’s collection available online. no. 6883 did match my coin, with a very similar weight and a photo available. The description had one surprise: “Billoin sale, 1886” - Weber recorded the provenance of his coins well. 

   Searching for ‘Billoin’ in a numismatic context, I came across Charles Billoin (1818-94) who worked as a lawyer and became a well known numismatist. He sold his collection at Rollin & Feuardent, a prestigious French auction house, in 1886. Lot 741 describes a coin that looks like mine, but with no photos. I was confused by a ‘6’ mentioned in the description, but this appears to be a measurement of the coin’s diameter on Mionnet’s scale, dating to the 19th century, designed to describe the size of coins and similar objects. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any mention of the coin further back than this, but at least we know that this coin was in three notable collections, cherished for the past ∼140 years. 

1. Rambach, H. (2021) Brand, Virgil Michael (1861/62-1926), CoinsWeekly. Available at: https://new.coinsweekly.com/whoswho-sammler/brand-virgil-michael-1861-62-1926-2/

2.  Forrer, L. (1922) ‘Introduction’, in The Weber collection. London: Spink & Son, p. XII–XIII.