CNG AUCTION 108 CLOSES MAY 16, 2018

Classical Numismatic Group is proud to present CNG 108, an Internet and Mail Bid Sale closing electronically on Wednesday, 16 May 2018, from 10 AM ET (U.S.). This sale offers 1243 lots with a presale estimate of $2.34 million.

Our annual spring sale features Greek, Celtic, Oriental Greek, Central Asian, Roman Provincial, Roman Republican, and Roman Imperial coinage. Additionally, there are featured selections of Romano-Byzantine weights, Byzantine, Early Medieval, Islamic, World, Siege, and British coinage, as well as a small selection of antiquities.

CNG 108 is highlighted by a number of collections and individual rarities, which make up the majority of coins on offer:

• Ancient and World Coinage from the D. C. Kopen Collection
• Greek Coins from the José Miguel Márquez del Prado Collection
• Coins of Thrace and Macedon from the Belgica Collection (Part II)
• Alexander Type Coins from the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection
• Impressive Zeus Ammon Facing Bust Electrum Stater of Kyzikos
• Third Known Seal and Octopus Electrum Stater of Phokaia
• The MNL Collection of Seleukid Coins (Part I)
• Baktrian and Indian Coins from the David Nelson Collection
• Roman Coins from the Fendi Collection
• Roman Republican and Imperatorial Coins from the Jonathan P. Rosen Collection
• Licinius I Facing Bust Aureus – Among the Finest Known
• Late Roman and Byzantine Coins from the D. Massey Collection
• Bulgarian Coins and Seals from the Iconodule Collection
• Multiple Talers and Dutch Coinage from the Jonathan K. Kern Collection
• The Jonathan K. Kern Collection of Siege Coinage
• Superb Edward ‘the Black Prince’ AV Hardi d’Or
• Selections from the Anthony Halse Collection of British Pattern Coinage

Catalogs for CNG 108 have been mailed to our active mailing list and bidding is open on the site. Some of the individual highlights from CNG 108 are:

Lot 19 – SICILY, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. EL 100 Litrai – Stater (18.5mm, 6.98 g, 9h). Struck circa 310-306/5 BC. Head of Apollo left, with long hair, wearing laurel wreath; SYPAKOSION to left, bow to right / Head of Artemis right, wearing taenia, triple-pendant earring, and pearl necklace; quiver over shoulder, bow to left, SOTEIPA to right. Jenkins Group D, dies a/a; BAR Issue 13; HGC 2, 1293; SNG Lloyd 1433; BMC 252 = GPCG pl. 26, 33; Jameson 844 (all from the same dies). EF, hairline flan crack. Fine style. Better centered and as well struck as the Prospero specimen that recently resold in New York Sale XXXII (lot 100) for hammer $50,000. Estimated at $30,000

Ex Palombo 12 (6 December 2013), lot 11.

Lot 171 – MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 450-330 BC. EL Stater (17mm, 15.99 g). Horned and bearded head of Zeus Ammon facing slightly left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 183; Greenwell –; Boston MFA 1559 = Warren 1425 = Traité II 2624, pl. 173, 32; SNG BN –; SNG von Aulock –; BMC –; FSD –; Gillet –; Gulbenkian –; Jameson –; Myrmekion 100 (same die and punch); Rosen –; Weber –; Sotheby, 8 July 1996, lot 60 = Leu 59, lot 125. Good VF. Exceptional for this extremely rare issue, apparently the fourth known. Estimated at $20,000

Ex Houghton and Kern Collections

Lot 282 – SELEUKID EMPIRE. Seleukos I Nikator. 312-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.05 g, 10h). Susa mint. Struck circa 305/4-295 BC. Head of hero (Alexander or Seleukos?) right, wearing helmet covered with panther skin and adorned with the ear and horns of a bull / BASI?EOS SE?EYKOY, Nike standing right, placing wreath on trophy; monogram to lower left, monogram in lower middle field. SC 173.4; ESMS Tr.7 (A4/P1 – this coin referenced and illustrated); ESM 426; HGC 9, 20; CSE 1023 (this coin); SNG Spaer –. EF, toned. Estimated at $15,000

From the MNL Collection. Ex Jonathan K. Kern Collection; Numismatic Fine Arts XXVI (14 August 1991), lot 96; Numismatic Fine Arts XVIII (31 March 1987), lot 276; Arthur Houghton Collection, 1023.

There is much debate concerning the identity of the hero on the obverse of this type. The most common suggestions are Alexander the Great, Seleukos I, or a personification of Dionysos. See O.D. Hoover, “The Identity of the Helmeted Head on the ‘Victory’ Coinage of Susa,” SNR 81 (2002), for the most recent treatment of this debate.

Lot 535 – The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. Late 46-early 45 BC. AV Aureus (21mm, 7.98 g, 6h). Rome mint; L. Munatius Plancus, praefectus Urbi. Diademed and draped bust of Victory right; C • CAESAR DIC • TER around / Sacrificial jug with one handle; L • PLANC upward to left, PRAEF • (VR)B downward to right. Crawford 475/1a; CRI 60; Calicó 45; Sydenham 1019-1019a; BMCRR Rome 4118; RBW 1663; Biaggi 29. Good VF, a few marks. Estimated at $7500

From the Jonathan P. Rosen Collection. Ex Chris J. Krausz Collection (Malter 51, 2 June 1993), lot 137; August Voirol Collection (Münzen und Medaillen AG 38, 7 December 1968), lot 262; M. Ratto (19 January 1956), lot 6.

The aurei of L. Munatius Plancus were distributed during Caesar’s triumph of October 45 BC, celebrating his final defeat of the Pompeians at Munda the previous year. This triumph raised some concerns in Rome, as it marked a victory over fellow Romans, an event never before deserving a triumph. Such actions only heightened the fears in some quarters over Caesar’s intentions, fears that lead to his assassination six months later.

Before his murder, Caesar appointed Plancus governor of Transalpine Gaul, where he founded the colony of Lugdunum.

Lot 678 – Licinius I. AD 308-324. AV Aureus (21.5mm, 5.33 g, 11h). Decennalia issue. Nicomedia mint, 4th officina. Struck AD 321-322. LICINIVS AVG OB D V FILII SVI, bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed facing bust / IOVI CONS LICINI AVG, Jupiter, holding Victory on globe in right hand and scepter in left, seated facing on high-backed throne set on platform inscribed SIC •X•/SIC •XX• in two lines; at feet to left, eagle standing left, head right, holding wreath in beak; SMN?. RIC VII 41; Depeyrot 31/1; Calicó 5094; Hunter –. Superb EF, fully lustrous. Exquisitely detailed and artistically important facing portrait struck in high relief, paired with an equally skilled and evocative Jupiter. Among the finest known. Estimated at $75,000

Ex Tkalec (24 October 2003), lot 412.

Earlier facing head portraits can be found on aurei of Postumus, Carausius, Maxentius, and Constantine I, but the great rarity of these issues today suggests they were only struck in very limited quantities for special occasions or were experiments that failed to gain traction. The facing head aurei of Licinius I and II, struck for their tenth and fifth anniversaries, respectively, thus mark the first effort to put facing-head aurei into general circulation in somewhat sizeable numbers and set a precedent for what will eventually become the norm for later Roman and Byzantine issues.

It is often remarked that while earlier portraits of emperors attempt to capture individuality (not necessarily reality), late Roman portraits subsume individuality in favor of a quasi-divine image. While the Licinian issues are not devoid of individualized features (see for example, NAC 62, lot 2093, which shares the same reverse die as our coin but carries a more mature portrait of Licinius II wearing long sideburns), through their rigid frontality and intense gaze they transfix the viewer in a startlingly bold and immediate way. They are, like the religious icons of their time, both didactic and devotional.

Lot 924 – GERMANY, Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle (Herzogtum). Christian Ludwig. 1648-1665. AR 4 Taler (71mm, 8h). Clausthal mint; mm: crossed hooks; Lippold Weber, mint master. Dated 1663 LW. Crowned CL monogram within laurel wreath surrounded by 14 crowned coats of arms set on oak wreath; 4 stamped below / Horse leaping left, monogram on flank; above, arm holding laurel wreath reaching from the clouds; in background, scene of Clausthal countryside; below, mining scene. Welter –; Davenport 176; KM 223.4. In NGC encapsulation, 4212835-001, graded MS 63. Toned. Estimated at $5,000

From the Jonathan K. Kern Collection.

Lot 1043 – DUTCH REVOLT (Nederlandse Opstand), Low Countries. Brussel. Blockaded by the Spanish, 1584-1585. AV 4 Gulden Klippe (23x23mm, 3.39 g). Dated [15]84. · 8 · 4 ·/· D · O · M ·/· BRVXEL ·/LA · CONFIR/ATA/4 G in six lines within quadrate / Incuse of obverse. Vanhoudt I 275; Gelder, Noodmunten, 185; Delmonte, Or 132; Maillet 7; Lasser –. In NGC encapsulation, 4212881-001, graded MS 61. Estimated at $15,000

Ex Archer M. Huntington Collection, ANS 1001.1.1246 (Numismatica Genevensis SA VII, 27 November 2012), lot 593 (hammer 20,000 CHF on an estimate of 4000 CHF).

Reportedly, a total of 661 examples of this denomination were struck.

Lot 1143–PLANTAGENET (ANGLO-GALLIC). Edward the Black Prince. As Prince of Aquitaine, 1362-1372. AV Hardi d’Or (26.5mm, 3.95 g, 6h). Bordeaux mint. Struck circa 1368–1371/2. + ?D’ · PO · GnS · R?GIS · ?nGLI? · PnS · ?QIT?NI? (rosette stops), half-length figure of Edward facing, wearing plain diadem, holding sword in left hand and pointing at it with his right, within tressure of arches / + : ?VXILIVm · m?Vm · ? · DOmInO · B : (rosette stops within), cross quernée, with quatrefoil at center; leopards and lis alternating in angles; all within tressure of arches. AGC 178, 3/a; Elias 161; Elias Collection 250 var. (obv. legend); Schneider 60 var. (same); Duplessy, Féodales 1122; Poey d'Avant 2940; SCBC 8128. Superb EF, unobtrusive mark in obverse legend. Well struck and with remarkably detailed portrait. Estimated at $15,000

Humphrey Sutherland praised the restraint and foresight of the unknown master who designed this type, who “in [an] age when sumptuous decoration of all redundant space was the normal fashion, was content–and dared–to leave the field totally devoid of ornament within its encircling tressure. By this means, he concentrated upon this larger and more personal portrait, so lifelike in its almost voluptuous forms, an emphasis which the Italian artists themselves were only just beginning to estimate and enjoy.” Art In Coinage, p. 154.

Printed catalogs for CNG 108 are now available. To order the catalog, please call our U.S. office at (717) 390-9194. Catalogs have been mailed to customers on CNG’s active mailing list. Prospective bidders may also view the virtual catalogs at CNG 108 Virtual Catalog. The sale can be viewed online at cngcoins.com, sixbid.com, and numisbids.com.

In addition to Internet & Mail Bid Sale 108, CNG will also feature over 1000 lots from many of the same collections listed above in their Electronic Auction 421, closing two weeks later on Wednesday, 30 May 2018, from 10AM ET (U.S.). Bidding for CNG Electronic Auction 421 will begin on 9 May 2018.

CNG is currently accepting consignments for future auctions sales. Please contact the firm for further details and consignment deadlines.

For further details and any additional information, please contact CNG, Inc. at:

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 479
Lancaster, PA 17608-0479
Telephone: (717) 390-9194
Fax: (717) 390-9978
Email: cng@cngcoins.com

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