Coin Vignette Collection Thrills

One smaller catalog on my pile of January NYINC satellite sales presents the Lawrence R. Stack Collection of numismatic images on american paper currencies. This is a great catalog for just perusing through. It is almost certain that any numismatist will find something of personal interest in this sale and I would venture to guess that most will also want to add this auction catalog to their library for future reference. The introduction by Stephen Goldsmith is wonderful and includes blow-ups of select vignettes.

This sale includes just about any piece of paper money which displays an image of a coin and there examples from almost every state and territory, plus Canada. Many areas of paper money and financial document collecting are represented, including; Colonial, Obsolete, Scrip, private issue, Bank issue, Municipal issue, chits, advertising notes, saterical notes, Federal Currency, National Gold Bank Notes, bonds, plus some printing plates, die proofs and rollers. Most of the vignettes represent either United States or Spanish coinage, which would have been in circulation at the time.

My personal favorite is an advertising chit from Chicago listed as lot 4451. Printed in green on thin cardboard, this two sided piece is good for one dime plant at Pool's Dime Garden at 97 Oakley Street. Looks like you had to spend a dollar in order to redeem your dime, but still a good deal. This is the only example of this chit I have ever seen and it represents a very nice piece of Chicago ephemera.

Great Gold Rarities in Kroisos Collection

What better timing could Stack's ask for in the launching of their January 14th Kroisos Collection auction? Spot gold hit an all time high just a few hours before this massive collection of premium gold coins began crossing the block.

But aside from creating additional media interest, spot may have little influence on many of the Kroisos coins, as they are way above much of any relation to bullion.

Key groups in this sale include; a fantastic run of Russian historical medals mostly struck in gold, a great run of imperial Russian silver coins, plus two sacrce copper plate money pieces of Catherine I, some great seige pieces and patterns are scattered throughout this sale, including a unique gold siege Ducat from the 1572 siege of Haarlem and the unique Leipzig siege 2 Ducats of 1547 and the unique Magdeburg siege 2 Ducats of 1551, an outstanding selection of  Italian gold coinage, a great run of British gold and silver coins, classic German States gold coins galore, some very scarce French gold coins such as the 1555 Henri II piefort struck to the weight of an 8 Henri d'Or, scarce Austrain and Austrain States gold coins, a rare Albanian presentation set from 1927, a good selection of Swiss cabnton gold pieces, another grouping of steel engraved plates and cylinders from the American Bank Note Company archives, several groups of orders and decorations, many rare Latin American gold coins and a treasure trove of individual pieces from various countries around the world.

Coins of special interest to me included lot 2967, the wonderful Ormonde Pistole from the Great Rebellion. One of only two in private hands, the other example sold at Whyte's Millennial Collection sale in April 2000 for about $135,650 and resold through Spinks in 2006 for about $118,600. Stack's conservatively estimates this example slightly below those figures and I will be anxious to see it's closing figure.

Also of great interest to me is lot 3524 the 1870 gold pattern 1 Doblon of Uruguay. It's unique struck in gold and I do not have a modern price reference for our catalog, as this piece has not surfaced since the 1940's. On a personal note I will also be looking to see what lot 3511, the cut and countermarked 4 Pesos Fuertes of Paraguay sells for, as I was lucky enough to examine this coin some number of years ago through the kindness of a good friend in numismatics.

Fabulous Reference Catalog for Ancient Greece

In addition to being a great opportunity to spend copious amounts of money on rare and artistic Ancient Greek coinage, the Lawrence R. Stack Collection sale set for January 14th is also a choice catalog to retain in your ancient coin reference library. Fully color illustrated with large spot glossy images, this catalog offers both solid attribution and interesting historical background for every coin offered. Held in conjunction with The Kroisos Collection of world coins this pair of auctions will bring a blast of much needed new material to the coin market.

Even if you do not collect Ancient Greek, you might want to pick up the Lawrence Stack catalog to further your familiarity with the artistry and beauty of classical Greek coinage. If you do collect these coins, there will be opportunites to expand your collection within this sale, so check it out quickly at the Stack's website today. Tomorrow we will write a posting for the Kroisos sale, but don't wait for our review, you can view lots for this sale at the Stack's site also.

Groups which caught my attention in this sale included a great run of coins from Carthage whose use of Horses in thier designs is lovely and a long run of animal themed Sicilian Didrachm and Tetradrachm.

Individual coins of high significance included lots 2034 and 2035, both Staters of Sybaris, Lucania from 453-448 B.C. and each formerly unpublished and unique. I was also taken aback by the magnificents of lot 2132, a Syracuse gold Dekadrachm in fabulous shape, of wonderful design and only the second known specimen, as well as the highly desireable and extremely rare gold Stater of Ptolemy I struck at Kyrene and designed to identify Ptolemy with the empire of Alexander the Great. The use of elephants on the reverse design is stunning on this Egyptian rarity.

Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

Munich

I had borrowed Munich from my son several months ago, but given it's length of 2 hours 44 minutes, it was hard to find time to fit it into a day. The subject matter is what interested me, as the 1972 Olympic tragedy was an event I remember, but the aftermath I know very little about.

From a historical perspective the Black September abduction and murder of Israeli athletes is something we all heard about on the news, but the aftermath in the form of Israeli response was covert and kept from the public eye for many years. Munich, in part, was based on a book by George Jonas published in 1984, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, which puported to uncover this covert operation, but Steven Spielberg went further in researching and developing a story designed to touch deeper into all our thoughts and bring up themes very peritent to our world some 35 years later.

Spielberg offers a meaningful introduction to Munich on the DVD I watched and I would recommend seeing this before viewing the film. But even without his comments any viewer will be able to taste the conflict within the charcaters central to this film. The acting is superb, particularly from Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush and Ciaran Hinds. The story is tense, heartfelt and meaningful. It's a thinking persons film and well worth the extended time frame.