Watch List notes:

Collection of 35 Denarii from the Jyrki Muona Collection: Nero to Vitellius. ; Collection of 35 Denarii from the Jyrki Muona Collection: Nero to Vitellius; A group of 23 whole denarii of emperors from Nero to Vitellius, plus twelve denarii of the emperors from Nero to Domitian with substantial pieces cut away for metallurgical analysis. From the collection of Jyrki Muona, Helsinki, Finland, who earlier loaned these 35 coins to Kevin Butcher and Matthew Ponting for metallurgical analysis and inclusion in their important monograph The Metallurgy of the Roman Silver Coinage From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan, Cambridge, GB, 2014, as Dr. Muons explains on a signed sheet that he wrote to accompany this lot. We can also provide the purchaser of the lot with a new copy of Butcher and Ponting's monograph, if he so desires. All 23 of the whole coins and most of the twelve cut coins have a tiny drill hole in the edge, providing access to non-enriched silver alloy in the interior of the coin, and each coin is accompanied by a ticket naming the page of the book on which its compositional analysis is published. The book actually contains analyses of 65 silver coins from Muona's collection, but the other 30 tested coins are not present in this grouping. The 23 whole coins: Nero, three denarii CONCORDIA AVGVSTA, condition F, fineness 97%. (A discovery of Butcher and Ponting's: Nero's earliest post-reform denarii were still virtually as fine as his pre-reform coins, his debasement of the standard to 80% fine only occurring a little later) Three standards, condition VG, fineness 90%. (A further discovery of Butcher and Ponting's: Nero's final issue of denarii improved their silver content from 80 to 90%) Three standards, apparently an ancient counterfeit with the wrong obverse legend NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS, but in official style and with a substantial silver content, condition F/VG, fineness 72.6% Galba, three denarii VICTORIA P R, Rome, RIC 217 or 234, rare, F, fineness 92.1%. (At Rome Galba continued Nero's Revised Standard) ROMA VICTRIX, Spain, RIC 45, F/VG, this coin illustrated by Butcher and Ponting (Fig. 11.2), fineness 98.6%. (Galba's provincial denarii were purer than his Rome-mint coins) FORTVNA AVG, Lugdunum, RIC 128, rare, F, silver content 95.8% Otho, twelve denarii Seven best: Rare portrait left, PAX ORBIS TERRARVM, RIC 6, F, fineness 89.1%. (Otho, like Galba, at first carried on Nero's Revised Standard) Rare portrait left, SECVRITAS P R, RIC 12, F/VG, fineness 90.1% PONT MAX, Aequitas standing, RIC 19, rare, VF, fineness 83%. (Later in his reign Otho reverted to the more debased First Neronian Standard) PONT MAX, Emperor on horseback about to hurl spear, RIC 22, rare, two specimens, VF (fineness 80.7%) and VG (82 or 80.3%) PONT MAX, Vesta seated, RIC 24, rare, two specimens, Good F (fineness 84.2%) and F (fineness 79.6%) Other five Othos: PAX ORBIS TERRARVM, denarius corresponding to the aureus RIC 5, F, fineness 89.3% SECVRITAS P R, RIC 8, 2 specimens, VG (fineness 89.1%) and G (fineness 94.4%) VICTORIA OTHONIS, RIC 16, VG, fineness 94.7% PONT MAX, Ceres standing, RIC 20, VG, fineness 83% Vitellius, four denarii CONCORDIA AVG, Rome, RIC 73, VG, fineness 80.3%. (Vitellius carried on Nero's debased First Standard from Otho's latest denarii) CONSENSVS EXERCITVVM, Mars advancing, Lugdunum, RIC 50 or 51, F, fineness 95.5%. (Vitellius' provincial denarii, like Galba's, were purer than his Rome-mint coins) FIDES EXERCITVVM, Clasped hands, Lugdunum, RIC 53, F, fineness 96.0% VESTA P R QVIRITIVM, Lugdunum, RIC 59, Good F, fineness 96.5% Vespasian, one denarius PON MAX TR P COS VI, Pax seated, RIC 772, F, fineness 76.5% The twelve cut coins: ¼ to 1/3 of coin missing: 1 Nero, 1 Galba (apparently an ancient counterfeit, because fineness only 57%), 3 Otho, 1 Vitellius, 1 Vespasian, 1 Titus, 3 Domitian (including one of 82 AD, from Domitian's first issue of virtually unalloyed denarii, fineness 99.6%) ½ of coin missing: 1 Otho..