DAVISSONS AUCTION 44 ANNOUNCED

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 7, , Article 23

In an email to clients, Allan, Lief, & Marnie Davisson announced their firm's upcoming auction sale. -Garrett

Auction 44, our premier annual sale, is online now! Closing Wednesday, March 12th 2025. Print copies will be sent over the weekend. If you are not on our mailing list and would like a copy, please let us know.

Our sale opens as usual with classic ancient gold, and this time includes three beautiful historic Scottish rarities from Leland Scott's collection, and some select classic U.S. and world gold.

The ancient coins that made the cut to get into our sale had to pass the tests of historical interest, high grade, beautiful style, and gorgeous toning or patina. They were plucked from many sources, most frequently old collections and auctions. Our Greek section opens with a high condition rarity, the enigmatic Æ from Etruria with the head of an African paired with an elephant, followed by many beautiful large Greek silver pieces with old collection toning, classic rarities — among them a fine style Syracuse tetradrachm, nomoi from Herakleia, Thourioui, Himera, Velia, and Tarentum, the Macedonian Kings from different mints, Corinth, Rhodes, and fine style tetradrachms and a siglos from the East. Find them intermingled with fascinating small gems, high condition obols, and bronzes. Look for many coins with a tie to Hannibal.

Moving into Greek Imperial, the Romans in the Colonies, look for affordable rarities among the large bronzes and a choice group of billon tetradrachms clustered in the Holylands — Judaea, Samaria, Gaza, Tyre, Damascus — places in the Middle East that are tragically familiar to us today.

Fine Roman Republic denarii with cabinet and old collection toning, a superb portrait of Brutus, an exceptional legionary denarius, and a consignment of beautifully patinated Second Century sestertii, moves through the century to Roman Britain, with Caurausius and Allectus, then comes to a handful of exceptional Third Century silver, the deified megalomaniac Commodus, Maximus and his father, rare co-emperors Balbinus and Pupienus, and an exceptionally rare Gordian III "Balbinus head." These are just a small introduction to the fascinating coins we are offering this time around. We hope you enjoy them.

A small group of electrotypes of rare Anglo-Saxon coins made from rare types in the British Museum allow a moderately priced way to experience the design and the era these were used.

The British section includes Plantagenet coins, most with the family relationship noted. It also offers a superb Elizabeth crown, the rare "2" mint mark piece issued in very small numbers in 1602 in the last year of her reign. It has an exceptionally full and complete portrait as well as fresh surfaces with iridescence. And a splendid gorgeously toned Mint State Cromwell shilling. The Scottish section includes some particularly important and seldom seen pieces like lot 215, the earliest realistic portrait of a Scottish monarch, James III and an exceptional groat of James IV (218). There is also a rare and high quality 2/3rds ryal with an old pedigree. Plantagenet coins from Ireland and the Anglo-Gallic region complete this section. Richard the Lionhearted is well represented by deniers, one of which is a rarity with the letters reversed.

The token section follows. High quality and unusual pieces including many with very low mintages are featured in this section. The high-quality 19th century token collection—silver and copper—completes this part of the auction.

The United States section is brief but includes some pieces with unusual places in American numismatic history—a British 1749 farthing that was used primarily in the American colonies and an irregular (for want of a better word) Vermont piece. A proof Seated Liberty half dollar that has a presence dulled down a bit by the slab it's in, a few silver dollars and and a smattering of silver commemorative halves complete the auction.