A Distinguished Collection of Greek Coins: the Property of a Late Collector

Nomos, in association with Sonja Lambert, is proud to present its 34th Auction Catalogue, which contains A Distinguished Collection of Greek Coins: the Property of a Late Collector. This collection was formed by a prominent Belgian businessman active in the healthcare field, who collected with the help of Mme. Sonja Lambert. He had both excellent taste and a strong personality - he would take advice but he knew what he wanted. Equally vital were his ample resources, which meant that he could afford the finest quality. He began in the 1970s and continued until his death in 1997. There are only 131 lots in this sale, but each one of them was carefully and deliberately chosen both because it meant something to its new owner, thanks both to its connection with the past, and because of its quality and beauty. This was never meant to be a complete collection but, rather, a highly eclectic one; one that gave its late owner a great deal of pleasure. And unlike some who only collect coins in a single metal or denomination, he collected coins in all metals - gold, electrum, silver and bronze - and in all denominations, from bronzes and obols to dekadrachms. A perfect example of his exquisite taste is lot 11, the wonderful Stater of Poseidonia, which is, without a doubt, not only one of the finest Archaic Greek coins in existence, but is also one of the finest of all Greek coins to survive to our times. The figure of Poseidon on the obverse, shown with all his divinely muscular power, is a triumph of numismatic art. It is un-improvable in every way. Our collector’s eye for quality can also be seen in his three early Classical Syracusan tetradrachms (lots 28-30): each one is perfectly centered and stylistically fine. And while he primarily wanted larger coins, his small denominations were outstandingly spectacular too: the extremely rare Aphytis tetrobol (lot 60) and the amazing obol - the second known - from an uncertain mint in Ionia (lot 105) show the kind of coins he adored. The amazing Philip V tetradrachm (lot 78), with its stunning portrait of the Macedonian king, and which was illustrated in Kraay and Hirmer’ famous book, Greek Coins, is yet another superb example of the kind of coin that our collector sought. We said that he knew what he wanted: he was so struck by their beauty that, at different times, he acquired two splendid Knidian drachms, both from the same pair of dies (lots 110-111; Cahn 92) and two hektai from Mytilene, both with the same types, but one with a coiled snake on the obverse and the other with the snake on the reverse (lots 102-103; Bodenstedt 100B and 100A)! The coins in the collection range in date from the Archaic Period of the 6th century through the Classical and down into the Hellenistic, beginning after the death of Alexander III. One of the most exciting and rarest of his early Hellenistic pieces is the famous and extremely rare gold stater of Ptolemy I, struck in c. 312 and bearing a portrait of Alexander (lot 126). Regardless of mint or date or metal or denomination, or estimation, what all the coins in this collection have in common is the expert connoisseur’s eye that brought them together, and saw the connections that made a diverse group of ancient coins into a unified whole. Now all these coins have come to auction and eagerly await being cherished by new owners in new surroundings.