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Auction: 23004 - Ancient and British Coins - Featuring the 'White Rose' Collection
Lot: 650

Roman Empire, Constans (337-350), 'Decennalia Issue', AV Solidus, struck AD 347-348, Treveri, CONSTANS AVGVSTVS, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right, the ties splayed, rev. VICTORIAE D D N N AVGG, two victories stood facing, holding shield inscribed VOT/X/MVLT/XX across four lines, TR in exergue, all within wreathed border, 4.41g [68.1grns], 6h (Cohen 171; RIC VIII, 135; Biaggi 2123; Depeyrot 6/3; Philadelphia Mint Cabinet Collection [1912/14], no. 736; Gnecchi [1912], pp. 28, no. 19; Boyne [1896], 949; E Bizot, Sotheby, 19 November 1902, lot 370a = Schlesinger Y Guzman, Sotheby, 20 July 1914, lot 188 = A H Nachfolger Auction, 18 December 1933, lot 1032; Theodor Prowe, Brüder Egger, 28 November 1904, lot 2813; Astronomer [McClean, 1906], 142; O'Hagan [1908], 780-781; J G Sandeman, Sotheby, 13-17 June 1911, lot 634; SNC November-December 1917, no. 56878 - 'FDC' - £4.10.0; J S Jenks, Chapman, 7 December 1921, lot 522; Marchese Roberto Venturi-Ginori, 24 January 1938, lot 923-924; Glendining, 14 March 1939, lot 119; Glendining, 28 February 1940, lot 171), perfectly centred and sharply struck up with broad and pronounced rims seldom encountered on these latterly clipped types, good extremely fine and much as issued, a very rare type with a fine pedigree

Provenance

Spink, by private treaty, 13 May 1947 [ref. G.11777] - £15.10.0 [with collector's ticket, priced MS/N/-, and confirmed in the surviving Spink Stock G Inventory Book after omission from the 1947 Numismatic Circular]
'Prot.', believed to indicate the coin and antiques dealer Christopher Protheroe († 28 March 1976), resold to Spink, 1947 - £11.0.0

Protheroe's remaining coins were auctioned by Glendining, 14 July 1977. In exhaustive searches for comparable examples of this unusual variety, and study of the surviving plate images from auction catalogues dating between 1902 and 1940 as outlined above, the following putative further provenance can be added based entirely on surviving Spink records:
Possibly:

SNC, October 1944, no. 26898 - VF - £5.10.0 [acquired, 15 May 1946, ref. G.10427]
Lord Amherst of Hackney F.S.A., of Didlington Hall, Norfolk, collection purchased en bloc by Spink from William Alexander Evering Cecil (3rd Baron), to be offered through the Numismatic Circular

~thence by descent ~
William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron († 16 January 1909), whose collection of Egyptology was studied by a young Howard Carter and sold by Sotheby's shortly before his decease after it had been discovered that the Estate's trust funds were misappropriated by their appointed solicitor Charles Cheston

It is not known precisely when the 1st Baron commenced his numismatic collection, although his Egyptology cabinet testifies to the purchase of the Rev. W. Leider of Cairo Collection in 1861 when he was only 26 years of age; followed soon after by 'many antiquities' from the famous Galerie of Comte de Pourtales-Gorgier in 1865; and later the 'entire museum' of Mr John Lee of Hartwell House, Aylesbury. His surname and family seat are also especially revealing. His father William George Daniel-Tyssen, married in 1834, Mary, daughter of Andrew Foutaine, a scion of the famous art collecting lineage of Narford Hall. The Tyssen connection, whilst immediately venerated in numismatic circles on account of Samuel of Narborough Hall 1802 fame, is noteworthy but not conclusive, on account of William George adopting the name, by letters patent of Queen Victoria in 1852.

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Sold for
£3,500

Starting price
£2500