I laugh every time I see under my CT’s avatar the title « well known member ». It’s funny because I’m only « well known » by the members of my family....But it’s true that over centuries many collectors were first famous not because of their love for numismatic. So just for fun, let me present you some of them. I concentrated my research on Roman coin collectors, since it’s my passion. We will start with an emperor, 2 kings, a president and...a pope. Augustus 63 BC- 14 AD It was a tradition in ancient Rome and Greece to offer coins as gift during some festivities.Ovid, a roman poet who was a contemporary of the first emperor of Rome, reported in his writings that Augustus perpetuated such a custom. The historian Suetonius recorded the same thing about him : « On the Saturnalia, and at any other time when he took it into his head, he would now give gifts of clothing or gold and silver :again coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money ». We can easily imagine he had a variety of republican coins, probably greek ones as well in his collections.. King Louis XIV of France 1638-1715 Called the « sun king », Louis XIV was on the throne for 72 years. During his long reign, France was the leading European power. But even kings have hobbys. It is reported he enjoyed so much the French Royal Coins Collection that he visited it daily, saying « I always find something new to learn ». He was also a collector of works of arts , specially of ancient coins. But the guy seemed to be a bit stingy. Even if He was rich as Croesus , he wasn’t willing to spend his money to expand his collections. I had inherited many roman bronzes from his family or from his predecessors. Of course, King Louis didn’t see any problems in accepting gifs from the noble ones who came to court him in his castle...For example, it is reported that in 1689, Charles Errard, director of the french Academy in Rome, gave the monarch 72 roman bronzes as a present for his majesty. Here is a picture of one of his cabinets, where he kept coins from his collection. President John Quincy Adams 1767-1848 To be precise, the collection was started by his father, John Adams (2nd President of the US ). But John Quincy made it grow in an amazing way. The Adams family numismatic collection was maintained by the Mass.Historical Society for many years, and then transferred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where Corneleus Vermeule , the well known numismatist ,oversaw its cataloging. The historical society finally decided to sell coins to raise money to catalog and microfilm the Adams family documents , and the auction house Stack’s was the lucky winner chosen to oversee the sales held in 1971 and 1973. I remember that some members here on CT have in their possession coins from John Quincy Adams collection. Here is a link for more details about Stack’s sale : https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=516470 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy 1869-1947 He was king of Italy from 1900 to his abdication in 1946. At the age of 12, he became interested in numismatic by the influence of his tutor. Over 400 letters written by Victor Emmanuel to Colonel Osio still exist in the Italian’s archives. They were discussing together about coins, new acquisitions and books. When he left for Egypt in 1946, he gave his 100000 coins collection to the people of Italy. They were dating from the fall of the Roman empire in the west to the unification of the Italy , issued by Italian mints, in Italy and abroad. The King also left his biggest achievement of his life : the 20 volumes of the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum , which he edited personnaly, with the help of a number of successive numismatic secretaries. The collection itself is an extraordinary source of reference, each coins having a ticket handwritten by the king, recording provenance, auction or dealer with prices, or name of donors. The 20 volumes in a special cabinet Pope Paul II 1417-1471 This pope was not only an enthusiastic collector, but also an expert in matters of arts. « He was able at the glance to tell where an ancient coin came from, and give the name of the prince whose image it bore ». Many years before he became pope in 1464, Pietro Barbo was an outstanding collector of bronze statuettes, gems and coins. He is even described as a « avaricious coin collector ». The Cardinal collected about a hundred ancient gold, and a thousand ancient silver coins. From the window of his palace, Paul II looked down to the magnificent processions « which represented the triumphs of the ancient Roman Emperors, a favorite theme of the imagination of the period ». No inventory was made when he died, and so the full extent of his collection can not be determined. So even if most of us can be qualified of « perfect strangers », it’s interesting to know that our favorite hobby was a passion for kings and powerful people. If you have coins that have been owned by famous characters, please feel free to post them here !
Very interesting read - great thread idea. I look forward reading additional posts. On a humorous note: To think that painting of Pope Paul II was most probably flattering...ouch And I also believe I need a numismatic secretary (like Emmanuel III)....... sounds extremely useful.
I don't have any coins previously owned by Buddy Ebsen but I have a physical copy of the 1987 auction catalog for his collection of ancient gold coins. The catalog can be viewed digitally at https://archive.org/details/edwardsmetcalfbu1987supe and includes this picture of the collector.
Wish I had an ex-JQA! Bing has a good one... Here's a Buddy Ebsen: KINGS OF BOSPORUS, Sauromates II Bosporan Era 495 (CE 198/9) EL stater, 19 mm, 7.72 gm, 12h Obv: BACIΛЄωC CAVPOMATOV; diademed and draped bust of Sauromates right Rev: laureate head of Septimius Severus right; pellet to right; ЄЧV (date) below Ref: Frolova p. 177 and pl. XXXIII, 9-10 (same dies as illustrations); Anokhin 576a; MacDonald 506/2 ex Dr. Lawrence A. Adams collection ex Buddy Ebsen Collection (Superior, 7 June 1987, lot 4114) https://www.cointalk.com/threads/weeell-doggies-sauromates-ii-septimius-severus-stater.269821/ I tried to obtain a copy of the Superior auction catalog but accidentally bought the wrong catalog... it only had US coins . @Ed Snible, thanks so much for the link! Here's the coin listing from that digitized catalog:
I grew up watching the Beverly Hillbillies, and never knew Jed Clampett was a numismatist. I guess the black gold funded a great collection.
Lot 785 of the John Quincy Adams sale (Stacks, 1971) purchased by Christian Blom. Chris sold it to Mendel Peterson of the Smithsonian Institution (it comes with his tag) who sold it to Gene Brandenberg, Trojan Antiques. VESPASIAN Æ Dupondius OBVERSE: IMP CAES VESP AVG P M T P COS V CENS, radiate head left REVERSE: FELICITAS PVBLICA S-C, Felicitas standing facing, head left, holding caduceus & cornucopiae Struck at Rome, 74AD 10.2g, 28mm RIC 716, (RIC [1962] 555), Cohen 152, BMC 698 Ex: J.Q. Adams
I have a few coins with old provenance, but not from anyone famous. Someday I hope that I’ll be lucky enough to get my hands on a JQ Adams coin. I’ve always thought that it would be worthwhile to produce a catalog of the types of tags used by different collectors. Might help establish some lost provenances.
I once saw Pope John XXIII's collection of gold coins in the Vatican. And wasn't King Farouk of Egypt a coin collector?
Indeed he was. One of the greatest of modern time. His collection included 8500 gold coins and medals.... https://coinweek.com/expert-columns/pedigrees-hoards-the-palace-collection-of-egypts-king-farouk/
Lets not forget the Hunt brothers, those notorious billionaire scoundrels who tried to corner the silver market with Saudi help ! Nelson Bunker Hunt had an ancient coin collection that will probably never be equaled. He was forced to liquidate his collection of coins & antiquities to cover losses when the silver market crashed . I had one coin, pictured below, from his collection that Heritage auctioned for me years ago.
I have one coin that dates back to the early 1900's and the collection or Dr. W.R. Bruck, a collector in Berlin. That's as far back as it goes for me. I also have a few gifted me by Frank L. Kovacs, the noted dealer.
I read that she collects ancient Judean coins.I couldn’t find any pictures of her collection but this one.....
May I share a famous collector here? He was ex Ottoman diplomat in 19th century and I got lucky to get a Philip III tetradrachm from his collection few years ago ex. Alexander Cathadory Pasha
