QUERY: WRITER OF GROGAN COLLECTION LETTERS SOUGHT

I would like to appeal to E-Sylum readers to help me identify the writer of two letters dated to 1922 I found amongst other manuscript items, mainly relating to Ceylon coins and tokens, in a bound copy of the J Schulman of Amsterdam catalogue of the H T Grogan collection. Grogan collected coins issued by the colonies of European countries, and the sale was held on 23 February 1914. The catalogue is a bit outside my collecting interests, but I couldn't resist it because of the material that came with it.

The letters were all addressed to "Dear Symons", and there are the initals "CTS" in gilt on the leather spine. Using Manville & Robertson's book on British Numismatic Auction Catalogues I quickly found the 24 February 1943 Sotheby sale that included coins from the late Claude Trevine Symons of Ceylon.

I really now want to identify the letter writer, but this is proving difficult as his writing is tricky to read. Both letters are from Alta, Upper Lake Road, Kandy, which is in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In one letter he says he is "dancing mildly over handing you a new var of the Galle 2s on a platter" ie a Ceylon 2 stuivers, as he had not checked further than the date and it was the first 1783 he had seen without a colon below. In the other letter Symons had sent him rubbings of gold coins, one of which the letter writer identified as an imitation of the Porto Novo pagoda.

I have attached images parts of the letters and his signature, and would be grateful for any suggestions for a name.

Archives International Auctions, Hong Kong 5

The Alexander I. Pogrebetsky Family Archives of Chinese & Asian Banknotes

Sunday, May 24th, 2015

Highlights include:

• Lot 2474 Mercantile Bank of India, 1937 Issue
• Lot 2119 Yue Soo Imperil Bank, 1908 Silver Dollar Issue
• Lot 2024 Bank of Territorial Development, 1915 Issue 5 Dollars

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