320, Lot: 700. Estimate $100. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Nerva. AD 96-98. Lot of three (3) sulphur casts of sestertii made by Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788-1865). Rome mint. A group of three sulphur casts of sestertii, seemingly belonging to the manufacturer as they are described in Smyth’s publication of his collection, Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman Imperial large-brass medals (Bedford, 1834). Lot includes the following, with page and no. in Smyth’s catalogue whenever applicable: 1) CONGIAR PR, platform scene with emperor and Roma. P. 76, CVIII; 2) PLEBEI VRBANAE FRVMENTO CONSTITVTO, modius with six grain ears. P. 77, CXV; 3) FISCI IVDAICI CALVMNIA SVBLATA, palm tree. P. 78, CXVII. VF, as made.

A sailor, hydrographer, astronomer, author, and numismatist, British Admiral William Henry Smyth had a remarkable career. His twenty year service as a sailor took him around the Mediterranean, exposing him to other disciplines which he would devote himself to more fervently after 1824, when his naval career effectively ended. Most notable was his publication in 1844 of Cycle of Celestial Objects, which remained the standard astronomical reference for many years, and which earned him the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and the presidency of the Society. Heavily involved in learned institutions throughout Europe, Smyth was one of the founders of both the Royal Geographic Society in 1830 and the Royal Numismatic Society in 1836.

Smyth’s coin collection was pieced together across the Mediterranean and was remarkable for featuring many of the rarest and most sought after sestertii. Aside from the publication of his own collection, in 1834 he authored his Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman family coins belonging to his Grace the Duke of Northumbria.