Even though the New York International Numismatic Convention, traditionally held at nyc in early January, has been canceledthe auctions which were to occur together with the series have mostly stayed on the auction calendar.
Classical Numismatic Group will exhibit the Peter J. Merani Collection — branded Nummis Historiam Discens (Latin for”Learning history through coins”) — since the direct offering throughout its Triton XXIV Jan. 19 and 20 auctions, held in the company’s Lancaster, Pennsylvania, headquarters.
Merani was created in nyc in 1936, the son of Italian immigrants, and he enjoyed a long career as an lawyer. His love of Latin and background bloomed in high school, and he’d develop a profound enthusiasm for Roman and Vatican history, travel the globe together with his wife and kids. He concentrated on silver and gold early Roman and Aztec coinage, with a specific fascination with papal gold awards.
Of interest to nonancient experts is a Roman Republican silver denarius struck between the late summer to fall of 42 B.C. beneath the Roman Senator Marcus Junius Brutus, constituting his bare head right on the obverse and also the famed cap involving two daggers pointing down and EID MAR beneath on the opposite. CNG calls it”the most well-known of Roman coins”
The matter directly references the passing of Julius Caesar, together with all the pileus or cap of Liberty on the opposite flanked by 2 daggers, which CNG calls”a remarkably assertive coin,” since it depicts the weapons which implemented Caesar.
The company grades it Really gloomy when noting the high points of this obverse have some previous scrapes, and the inverse is struck slightly off centre.
A much milder instance of this kind, struck gold, offered for $4,188,393 on Oct. 29, 2020, in a Roma Numismatics market in London, together with this aureus placing a record for any historical coin in auction. Since Coin World’s Jeff Starck reported that niche,”Given that Roman coinage was a vehicle of propaganda, it’s simply natural that Brutus would boast of his own participation in overthrowing Caesar. The simple fact that Brutus put his own picture on the obverse, however, is ironic, in light of how the triumvirs judgment Rome in the time had embraced the practice” The one to be provided at CNG includes a modest estimate of $50,000.
Beautifully engraved dies
Among the most amazing of this group’s Imperial Roman problems is that a golden aureus minted in Rome involving A.D. 114 and 116 constituting the Emperor Trajan who dominated from 98 to 117 that showcases the profound ability of Roman expire engravers. He’s a patera — a wide, shallow dish used in ancient Rome for pouring libation in areas — and grain ears, symbols which could help identify this nude man to modern audiences. Graded Very gloomy by CNG, it’s an estimate of $5,000 plus a provenance that reaches to Oct. 3, 1934, when it had been introduced as lot 766 in the Ars Classica purchase of this Sir Arthur J. Evans Collection.
Gold papal medals
The Merani session finishes with a few superb gold papal medals, such as a handsome 1903 gold trophy depicting Pope Leo XIII. The decoration, measuring 43 millimeters in diameter, is rated by CNG as Really Nice with scattered marks and scrapes also carries an estimate of $3,000.
A more contemporary view about the papal gold decoration is observed in an oval medal measuring 35 by 46 millimeters from the sculptor Floriano Bodini. The reverse depicts a priest standing facing, raising his hands in benediction with a dove flying along with a bass visible, together with an angel at the lower half of priest’s clothes. The expressive and complex decoration was created from 1968 to 1969 and can be rated Extremely Fine, followed with its original box of difficulty and also estimated at $2,500.
