Kovacs Collection Selling Through Helios

Ancient Athletics in Helios - Frank L. Kovacs Collection

In reading through April’s The Celator magazine, I noticed an article about the Inaugural auction for Helios Numismatik. Seems that this coming Thursday and Friday, Helios Numismatik will be offering the Frank L. Kovacs Collection of ancient Roman coins with athletic and gladiator themes and designs, amongst other interesting ancient coins.

One Kovacs coin that caught my interest was lot 220, a silver denarius sporting the name L. Livineius Regulus and a grand depiction of animal vs. human combat on the reverse. L. Livineius Regulus, along with his brother were friends of Cicero. The head on the obverse of this coin is most likely a depiction of one of the Reguli ancestors, while the animal battle scene derives from the games of Julius Caesar.

Helios is also offering a good selection of medieval and modern coinage in this sale. Some that caught my eye included a good run of inexpensive medieval Armenian billon and silver coins, two excessively rare Georgian coins – a half dram of Queen Rusudan (1223-1247) and a dram from Bagrat IV (1027-1072), a seldom seen Luxembourg gold Florin of Grand Duke Johann of Bavaria (1419-1425), a wide selection of medieval Islamic coins and a number of outstanding early German States bracteates.

Even though this is the first auction for Helios, they seem to have all their ducks in a row. Their website is up and running, so you can check out the coins and place bids in time for the auction closing later this week. In addition I must say that I found their website pretty easy to use and friendly to operate. The switch to English translation was a breeze, terms of sale were clearly defined and bidding screens popped in quickly.

The staff
looked friendly to me as well, so I will pass them my electronic Best Wishes for a successful sale and strong future on the web.