At last, it is now time to welcome you all to our 37th Nomos Auction! Given everything that has taken place in the world over the past months - all the craziness, irrationality, idiocy and stupidity, especially on the part of people who should know better - it is a pleasure and a relief for us to be able to turn to coins! Yes, with coins we can lose ourselves in the past, since the coins of the past can tell us so much about the beliefs, events, interests, art, mythology, etc. that so marked the lives of our ancestors. Moreover, despite what we know about history, the past often seems a better place than today! Nomos 37, with 329 lots of coins, a few weights, a few seals, and, even, a die, ranging in date from the 6th century BC to 1676, and with estimates ranging from a mere CHF 200 on up to a heady 75,000 CHF, contains just what is needed to transport us to that better place!
We start, as is usual, with Celtic coins from Gaul, Central and Eastern Europe (lots 1-16), including one, apparently struck by the Unelli in the area of present-day Normandy, that has a head of Apollo that bears a remarkably resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock (lot 8)! Then we have Greek Coins: we being with a small, but very attractive, group of coins from Massalia (17-24). Magna Graecia and Sicily follow (25-43), succeeded by some very interesting pieces from the area of the Black Sea (44-59, and 117-121). The sale continues with coins from Thrace and Macedon (60-92), Central Greece, the Peloponnesos and the Cyclades (93-116), Asia Minor and Cyprus (122-172), Further Asia and Egypt (173-193) and, finally, a specialised group from Kyrenaika (194-216).
Then on to Roman Republican, Imperial and Provincial (lots 217-258), followed by Late Roman and By zantine (264-319). This last group includes some extremely rare issues of the 13th century (313-314), the dies used for the seal of an 8th-9th century dignitary (317) and the seal of a powerful woman of the second half of the 11th century (319). The auction ends with a few medieval and later coins from Italy, Spain and Carolingian Germany.
Just looking at the coins in Nomos 37 ought to cheer up everyone who views the catalogue, either online or in the hand! After all, if the Romans managed to survive Commodus (who, increasingly insane, had him self portrayed as Hercules on an impressive medallion, lot 239), we can get over the personalities of Today, whether they are selling ‘home-made jam’ or flying drones!
Nomos AG
Dr. Alan Walker, PhD
Dimitrios Gerothanasis MA
Johannes Stelzhammer MA
