Coins from the Bramhall Collection

CNG 96, Lot: 877. Estimate $300. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Arcadius. AD 383-408. AR Siliqua (17mm, 1.57 g, 12h). Treveri (Trier) mint. Struck AD 392-395. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and reversed spear; TRPS. RIC IX 106c; RSC 27†e. Good VF, toned, a few light scratches under tone.

From the Bramhall Collection. Ex Robert Bridge Collection (with his ticket).

Classical Numismatic Group is pleased to offer the Bramhall collection of Roman Imperial coins. This collection of 69 coins focuses on the later Roman Empire, beginning with Arcadius, and supplements his larger Byzantine collection that was previously sold in CNG Mail Bid Sale 93 and Electronic Auction 303. The present sale offers 62 of his coins, all designated as such among the following late Roman Imperial lots, with the remaining seven being run concurrently in CNG Electronic Auction 327. This collection was built by an English collector over more than three decades, and is highlighted by a number of specimens that were acquired directly from the collections of Robert Bridge.

Robert Bridge (1904-1997) was a gifted linguist – fluent in German, Italian, and French – who found application for his talents in Britain’s secret intelligence service. He spent WWII in military intelligence and after the war became Berlin station chief for MI6. Among his more interesting assignments can be mentioned his interrogation of the infamous Gestapo chief of Rome, Herbert Kappler, who was captured by the British while unsuccessfully trying to seek refuge in the Vatican. Berlin in the immediate postwar period was a focal point for espionage, and in much later years Bridge would privately describe experiences that seem straight out of John le Carré – the secret station office entered through what appeared to be an ordinary shop, late night meetings in a cemetery with an eastern source, and his abiding anger toward one of the “Cambridge Spies” with whom he had worked and whom he blamed for many deaths.

Bridge was also one of the most prominent 20th century English collectors of Byzantine coins, and began collecting in earnest around the 1960s. Many coins from his collection are cited in MIB 1 and 2, and 18 of his coins are illustrated on the plates. In 1990, he donated to the British Museum 274 Byzantine coins previously unrepresented in the national collection (including a solidus of the revolt of Heraclius). Much of his remaining collection was sold in a 1990 Glendining’s sale (catalogued by Baldwin’s), Byzantine Coins from the R.N. Bridge Collection.