Vol. 22, No. 10 Inside The Celatorv ... October 2008 Consecutive Issue No. 256 Incorporating Romall Coins and CU/lUre FEATURES PublisherlEdilor Kerry K. WeUerstrnm [email protected] 6 Dionysos Unmasked on Neapoliton Nomoi Associate Editors by Joseph Wihnyk Robert L. Black Michael R. Mehalick 20 Observations on the Madonna Denars of Page 6 Matthias Corvinus of Hungary-Part II For Back Issues From by Steven H. Kaplan 1.987 to May 1999 contact: Wayne Sayles 32 The Julius Caesar 'Elephant' Denarius: [email protected] What is the Symbolism? by James A. Hauck An: Parnell Nelson DEPARTMENTS Maps & Graphic An: Page 20 Kenny Grady 2 Guest Editorial by Ed Snible p.o. Box 10607 Coming Next Month Lancaster, PA 17605 TeUFax: 717-656-8557 4 Letters to the Editor For FedEx & UPS deliveries: Kerry K. Wetterstrom 36 People in the News 87 Apricot Ave tlroHtes in i2l11l1islIIlltirs Leola, PA 17540-1788 www.celator.com 37 Art and the Market Th6 C6/ator (lSSN 111048·0986) is an independent journal pub­ 40 Coming Events Page 32 lished on the !irst day of each month at 87 Apricot Ave, Leola. 42 e.-. &~ & ()~ PA 17540·1788. II is circulated in­ About the cover: A ternationally through subscrip­ by Mark Lehman tions and special distributions. marble circular relief Subscription rates, payable in 45 ANTIQ1JITI ES by David Liebert depicting Dionysos,ca. u.S. funds, are $36 per year (Pe­ 1"' century AD, photo riodical rate) within the United by States: $45 to Canada: $75 per 46 <!Co ins of t~c ~!'&ible David Hendin courtesy of the Metro­ year to all other addresses (ISAL). politan Museum of Art, Advertising and copy deadline is 48 The Internet Connection the first workday of each month for New York, and the re­ the IoI10wing mooth·s issue. Unso­ by Kevin Barry & Zachary "Beast" Beasley verse of a Neapoliton licited articles and news releases nomos showing Diony­ are welcome. however publication 49 <fhrouqh the Cooking glass cannot be guaranteed. Un less ex­ sos as a man-headed pressly stated. TheCelatorneither by Wayne G. Sayles bull. Photo courtesy of endorses noris responsible for the NAG AG. contents of advertisements, letters­ 50 Cartoon to-the·editor,leature articles. regu­ lar columns and press releases in 51 Professional Directory The Celatoroffice will its pages, including any opinions m staled therein. and the accuracy of be closed on Oct. 3 , any dala provided by ils contribu­ 56 On the Road - The Celator"s Show & Club Schedule Oct.24"', Nov.21 S1 and tors. Periodical postage paid NO\( 27"-28"'. Check (USPS #006077) Lancaster, PA 58 Club & Society Directory 17603 and additional offices. t,\e "0n the Road" Copyright © 2008, Paradigm 59 Classifieds - Index of Display Advertisers section for. further de­ Numismatics & Publishing, Inc. tails. Qffi ~hou rs are Postmaster: please send normal~ NOOjl to6P¥ address changes to; EST. Please keep in P.O. Box 10607 mind thatthis is aone­ Lancaster, PA 17605-0607 person...:::business when you're trying to FOUNDED 1987 BY reach me. Thank you! WAYNE G. SAYLES to deal with anyone whose invoices GUEST don't make the guarantee, and to not COMING NEXT buy from countries the UN says have . conflict diamonds. " . MONTH EDITO­ It would be difficult to adopt a sys­ R1 IN THE CELATOR® tem like the Kimberley Process for ~ RIAL coins. We'd need a bunch of new laws Faces of Empire ~ Part Xl, making it illegal to ship ancient and Hellenistic Beauty to Tetrar­ medieval coins across borders without By Ed UN certificates. We'd need to con­ chic/Constantini(ln Brutality Snible vince the UN to monitor coin sellers. by Cornelius Vermeule Every dealer and coin cleaner would Observations on the Madonna need to agree and to offer guarantees. In his editorial for the August IS­ If dealers and cleaners did all that, then Denars ofMatthias CO/7Jinus sue, Kerry Wetterstrom asked if the perhaps collectors could freely trade coin trade should self-regulate, It's ofHlInganj-Part III unaware of the details. hard to say how big the looting prob­ by Steven H Kaplan Our hobby is very small compared lem is. A coin can ' t tell you if it has 10 the world diamond market! Dia­ been sitting in a cabinet since the 16,h monds are only cut in a few cities and AND COMING SOON century, was uncovered by a p low last only by experts. Nearly anyone can year, O f was clandestinely dug out of clean an ancient coin, cven schoolchi l­ a forest preserve last week. The Birth of Jeslls Viewed dren. The UN doesn't have the resourc­ Throllgh Coins The worst possible outcome to the es to monilor everyone, nor should it. regulation and anti-collecting move­ Instead. I f<lvor a "provable" docu­ By Richard Plant ment would he a ban on ancient and mentation scheme. The scheme could be Sorting Out Those Pan Lial1g medieval coill imports with lil1lc re­ voluntary in some countries although duction in looting. That's what hap­ others might demand it. The key is prov~ by Ted J. Puls, MD. pened to ivory collectors, It's illegal ability. Regu lation must not give an ad­ to import ivory (chess sets, netsuke, The Atheninl1 EmergenClj Issue vantage to uncaught cheaters or they will and piano keys) with ivory hunted af­ be able to out-compete honest business­ of the Peloponnesian War ter February 1977 (Asian elephants) men. It must be easy to prove a coin is by Sam Spiegel or June 1989 (African e lephants). "non~fresh:' Kerry Wetterstrom suggest­ Documentation must exist proving cd registration 10 achicvc this. Registra­ Byzantine 101 ~Part 4 carvings predate the regulation. The tion is a good tool for. linking thi ngs. to by Prue Fitts re"ulations fo llowed the 1973 Con- o owners. Cars get regtstered so police vention on Int ernational Trade in En­ know who owns a car. Copyrights may The Temple on dangered Species (CITES) treaty. To be registered. In some places, guns must Mount Gerizim date. 173 countries have signed the be registered. There is a lot of paperwork treaty. yet elephants are still being on every sale and a loss of privacy. by Marvin Tameanko poached at 1/3 the pre-treaty level. II's Luckily. we don't havc a problem with difficult to enforce the treaty because Greek Numbers 011 Coins~Part ancient coin ownership dispu tes. The 1, Tile First Dated Coins and there is no way to tell pre-treaty ivory only thing we'd like 10 be able to prove from new, nor can Asian be distin­ is "when" a coin entered the market. Alphabetic Numbers guished from African. There is no gov­ I propose the hobby adopt taking by Edward E. Cohen ernment registration of ivory carvings photographs of every coin and adding - merely a documentation requirement. unforgeable timestamps 10 the photo­ People forge documentation. Not only graphs. Other data could be tracked, Heck , we passed prohibition! What did self-regulation fail fo r ivory-"gov­ such as ownership or first market ap­ can be done to stop lootin g without the ernment" regulation isn't doing well! pearance, but all that's needed is a sim­ help of the sources? Better things happened with dia­ ple date. Although there is no need 10 To stop looting from thi s end, col­ monds. The diamond in du stry adopt­ trac k the small percentage of coins that lectors must believe that a co in without ed regulations after consumers became appeared in printed catalogs, I recom­ easily verifiable provenance came out worried their purchases wcrc fuel ing mended timestamping a digital photo of the ground recently and will be hard African wars. Today, the tran sport of of those coins as well. to sell later. Having a strict cut-off date diamonds is highly regulated by the Before going into the details of the (1 970, 1983,2003, or 2010) means no Kimberley Process C ertification photo timestamp idea, I must point OUI incentive to track coins after that date. Scheme overseen by the United Na­ that it won't be as effective at curbing Many coins, probably millions, will miss tions. All diamonds crossing national looting as would allowing foreign cit­ the initial documentation target. There borders must be in tamper-resistant izens to own coin s found on their own must be a "rolling cut-off." People containers with uniquely numbered lands. People are remarkably resource­ whose coins missed the start date must Kimberley Process stamps. New laws ful at protecting their stuff! The lack know they can always sign up and sell make it illegal to ship rough diamonds of pri vate ownership of ant iq uities cre­ their coin in a few years. At first, thi s across borders without Kimberley cer­ ates huge incentives to ignore the may be just a few years, perhaps stretch­ tificates. Invoices must guarantee that problem at the sources. Unfortunate­ ing 10 ten years by 2030. the diamonds are "confl ict-free." Di ­ ly, democracies have the right to pass amond companies publicly agree not ineffective or counter-productive laws. Please turn to page 4 2 The Celator Ponterio & Associates, Inc. is now accepting consignments for this important Public Auction to be held in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention th th January 9 _10 , 2009 th Consignment deadline: October 6 , 2008 For more information, please contact our office. PONTERIO & ASSOCIATES ~ . 1818 Robinson Ave., San Diego, CA 92103 ~P ' N'G --.-.-. ...........,.. 800-854-2888 or 619-299-0400 PNG.