Triton XVIII, Lot: 1903. Estimate $3000. Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ROMAN. Imperial. Lot of six hundred forty-five (645) Constantinian Era Æ. Includes: Æ Reduced Folles of Constantine II and Constans from various mints, mostly eastern. Fair-VF with brown patina. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Six hundred forty-five (645) coins in lot.

Sold on behalf of the Royal Ontario Museum. Ex 1903/5 Ihnasyah Hoard. Each individual coin comes in an archival flip and has its own ticket containing museum inventory number and pedigree information.

Prior to the opening of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1912, the first Director of Archaeology, Dr. C.T. Currelly, purchased in Egypt a large hoard, or portion of a hoard, of Constantinian bronze coins, which were to form the nucleus of the Museum's collections. Containing coins datable from the period immediately following the Battle of Chrysopolis in AD 324 all the way to AD 346, the hoard, discovered, in 1903 or shortly before its sale, was purchased in 1905 at Ihnasyah in the Fayyum. Examined by J.G. Milne, the hoard, along with Milne's analysis, was published in 1914 in the Journal International d'Archeologie Numismatique. Totaling more than 6000 coins, the hoard included some coins from other periods, which made their way into the hoard at the time of the sale, since their patination is different from the rest of the hoard. In 1965, Frederick H. Armstrong published a revisiting of the hoard (Phoenix 19 [1965]), revising and amending the earlier work of Milne, and noting varieties missed in the earlier study prior to the publication of Late Roman Bronze Coinage.

For pdfs of Milne’s original publication of the hoard and Armstrong’s supplementary study, as well as a listing of the inventory numbers of the hoard, see http://www.cngcoins/rom